montrii

I looked everywhere for it for weeks, and finally found some at Tops, just a few days ago. Maybe they're starting to produce again . . . but I still don't see it anywhere else, and what was there wasn't much, probably gone by now.

I also messaged you, but for others who might be interested: there are some halfway decent horns for sale at . . . Lucky Musical Instruments, 645/17 Petchburi Road, Between Soi 13-15. Bangkok 10400. Rachathevi BTS station, get off on the right, keep going in the same direction as the train. Cross the big street, that's Petchburi Road, and turn right. It's about 1/2 km, I'd say, down the street.

suda soi 14 the only problem y would have is two of you trying to eat 1,000bhts.worth of food.until we moved from bkk.went there for 20odd years.

Suda, Soi 14, definitely. Right across from Los Cabos, which for my money (and a pretty good amount of it, too!) is the best Mexican in town.

Suda has good variety, decent quality. Good farang "beginner" Thai restaurant, the taste is authentic Thai but they won't make it Thai-hot unless you tell them you're OK with that. Price is right, even though a lot of farangs eat there. So, yes, you would have trouble getting up to ฿1000 with two unless you both drink a LOT of beer.

I was curious, so googled around a bit and came up with this one, which has a little more detail. Both articles, by the way, say that the guy who was killed (nickname Dtoy) was a pretty well-known snooker player, one of the best in Chiengmai. What the second article says is that he and this ex GI, Gary, had played together before and the last time they'd played they'd had a serious argument which didn't get resolved at the time. Gary's story is that when he went into this snooker bar (Caesar's is the name, only in Thai script) Dtoy got in his face and started a fight, Dtoy pulled out a knife and almost stabbed him, at which point Gary pulled out his foot-long switchblade toad-sticker and went at it, stabbing Dtoy five times, three in the chest and two times in the chin, probably means under the jaw, I guess.

So there's a little more gruesome detail, for the morbidly curious. And if you want to know exactly where everybody lived, that's in there, too, go figure! Thai journalism requires it.

Reading the article carefully--difficult mostly because Thai journalism of this sort is very dry, names all the police officers involved and walks slowly through events--I see that the ex-GI maintained he was attacked by the Thai and was defending himself, that's something I haven't seen mentioned here. Not that I believe or disbelieve him, it seems like the sort of thing one would probably say. But the story is long on details, the blood on the knife and his jeans, which it mentions two or three times, exactly how they contacted him (his wife phoned him), etc. and doesn't get at all into what caused the stabbing. There were eyewitnesses, but apparently the reporter didn't think to ask them what they saw happen. Very odd to a Westerner, but that's how they report this sort of thing, all detailed fact, no looking to motivation or trying to find out what it was really all about.

Wow, not like my experience, ever. There are sleepers, both first and second-class. First class are for 2 people only, completely quiet. A very pleasant trip, either way.

If the overnight train is coming in in the afternoon, it must be because of flood delays. It's supposed to arrive in the early morning, but might sometimes be as late as 10AM (quite late), but I've never heard of later than that.

As for how "the Thais plan things," that's a pretty blanket suggestion, an unwarranted ethnic insult. Responder should take it back, IMHO. Actually when I first came here the Thai trains were as punctual as the German trains. Something happened along the way, probably akin to what happened in the States for many years, where the powers that be decreed that freight transport would take precedence. Anybody ride Amtrak in the 90's or in the last 10 years? Horrible delays. That policy has changed in the States, and it can change here.

I saw the picture the OP refers to. Don't believe it's on a main track, probably leads off to a freight pickup. No second track, notice? Tracks up north are always double, at least.

Actually those bicycles are everywhere these days . . . in the Emporium Phrom Phong building on, I think, the third floor, opposite corner from Kinokuniya, there is a shop that sells them. Pro bike (Probike Co., Ltd. 237/2 Sarasin Rd., Lumpinee Pathumwan Bangkok Thailand 10330, right across from Lumpini Park, has some really good ones. Giant is also good. The big shops like that are pretty much Farang prices, though. Good bikes aren't cheap anywhere.

Fortunately my condo has a decent gym with OK machines, plus a great pool. I looked at CAWow because a doctor friend (Thai) had a life membership and recommended it. At that time, a year or more ago, they said they didn't have the life memberships any more. If they have them again, and you can pay a lump sum and use any facility forever, that seems to me a good deal. Otherwise, there are plenty of other places, some of them decent and cheap. When I went to CAWow I was put off by two things, as well. First was the constant "boom boom boom" disco beat that they seem to think people want to exercise to, but in fact a lot of us find quite off-putting. The other was the hard sell, they get you sitting down with a bunch of salesmen/women, and give you their own version of a facilities tour instead of just letting you wander around and observe, which is how I like to do it. Still, though, with a lifetime membership, it would be convenient.

In the US it's congress.Criss Todd and Barney Frank allowed banks to lend to people who's credit was poor.Thats how the problem started.Now bank of america is charging $5 A month on debit cards.Congress did it again.

Good one. Blame the poor people.

That's some seriously poor comprehension or are you auditioning for a job on Crossfire?

I think the comprehension isn't that great, but certainly the spelling is better. I think the OP dude means "Chris Dodd." Also, he means "whose" instead of "who's," and "that's" instead of "thats." But in any case, I think the dude is referring to the Fannie Mae/Freddy Mac business, which right-wingers like to point to as causing the housing bubble-burst. In fact what caused the housing bubble was a variety of things, primarily greed on the part of buyers and sellers, and the deregulation of banks, which is what right-wingers think is such a great thing.

Of course the poor credit risks shouldn't have been loaned to. The question is, where do you put the blame, and how do you prevent it from happening again? The problems can definitely not be laid at the door of two people who would probably admit that had they known how bad it would get they might have acted differently. The problems are much bigger than that, and would have happened anyway. The housing market got too big for its britches, and the banks were riding high on a tide of deregulation, so started selling bad paper. The answer is simple. In any game there are rules to prevent things from getting out of hand. Clearly more are needed, not fewer, in the great game of capitalism.

Hot tip: La Buca, Soi 1. Close to Ploenchit BTS Station, just go down the Soi a couple hundred meters, it's on your right. Owner is from Milano. Real Italian, atmosphere, too, and pretty inexpensive--last time I went a glass of red wine was only ฿120, which ain't bad for around here. Owner is a nice guy.

I am glad some is thinking of him/herself at the cost of everyone else misery

Ah, well. Someone always gains an advantage, someone always loses advantage. But it's not usually to the extent of creating misery. When the baht was 44 to the dollar, I felt more comfortable, but the Thais seemed to be living about as well as they are now, didn't seem to matter much to anyone's lifestyle here that I could see. I try to take the ups when they come and roll with the downs. Show me someone who doesn't "think of himself" to some extent and I'll show you a very successful monk.

However, I don't think dollar would go anywhere near 38-40. I'd be really happy if it did, but I can't see it happening.

One never knows, do one? When I was working here in tsunami relief, 2005, it was 44/1, around there, the whole time. I didn't personally experience it, but someone told me that for a time it was up around 50. And when I moved here a few years ago it was still around 36-37. So dreams are not necessarily as improbable as the lottery. It seems to me that 38-40 is not out of the question. But then, unfortunately, neither is 25.

I always stay at the Expat Hotel in Patong. Great place, tucked away in the back but within walking distance of the beach. http://www.expathotel.com/ Good rooms, great pool, used to be under a thousand a night, but . . . too bad. Anyhow still one of the very best deals, high-season rooms for about ฿1200/night.

I'm surprised only one person here seems to have gotten it. First of all, this isn't a farang. It's a Nigerian, or citizen of some nearby African state. The writing style is a dead giveaway, especially combined with the substance of the letter. I personally know two middle-aged Thai ladies here who almost took the bait. Anyhow howzabout change the topic from "farangs who lie" to "Nigerian scams." There are a number of different types. One, like this, preys on lonely hearts. Another phishes somebody's e-mail and sends requests for emergency funds to that person's online contacts. Yet another claims to have funds that they can't disburse without your co-signature, for which they'll pay you some outrageous amount of money, they say, then they ask you for bank account numbers. Apparently these scams do generate some funds for somebody, or they wouldn't keep happening.

As for "farangs that lie," I assure you that you lie. I lie. Everyone in the world lies, Thais, Russians, even Bantu Pygmies. We all have reasons for lying, some good, some bad. To say "I don't like people who lie" is to say "I don't like people." But I certainly wouldn't lie in the nasty way these creeps do it, and I hope you wouldn't, either.

I've been using SBC direct debit for ages, also. Absolutely no problems. Even putting money in other people's accounts in other Thai banks can be done instantly, all you need is their account number. I pay all my house bills with it, mobile phone, cable TV, you name it.

Actually, the sufficient ties language is pretty much the only reason they ever give because, that's the language in the statute requirement talking about what people are required to show in order to receive the visa... So basically they're just saying, you didn't meet our threshold. But "ties" can and does mean a whole basketful of specific things, and the applicant has no clue where they've come up short in the eyes of the consulate.... Beyond that, I don't think your final comment is justified by the many reports of members here on the subject, and general reports about the tourist visa process at the U.S. Consulate in BKK. There are people who basically have no reason or basis for getting a tourist visa who have been granted them... and on the opposite site, people who would seem to have more than enough specific factors in their support who have been denied.... All in all, based on a multitude of reports, it appears to be a tremendously arbitrary, capricious decision making process.

I couldn't agree more with this. Here is my own story, with all my anger: I now have been retired here for three years, but before that, my Thai girlfriend applied three times for a tourist visa to the United States while I was living in Berkeley, although I was in Thailand one of those times. All the times she produced all the supporting documents suggested by State Department guidelines, including documentation of the following:

• a university degree and a senior-level job of nine years standing at an import-export firm for whom she had gone on numerous business trips outside Thailand
• a 1.3 million baht townhouse and a 2003 Honda automobile in her own name
• a substantial savings account
• proof that she had been invited to visit the U.S. at a specific address for a specific two-week period a letter of support from me—a former U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand with a continuing history in that country.

Even with this she was turned down all three times, for reasons which were never made clear enough that she or I could comprehend them. The official justification was a general one: under section 214(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act she had failed to show evidence of compelling social, family, or economic ties outside the United States sufficient to ensure her return to Thailand. She was never told what, specifically, might have been seen lacking in the thorough documentation which she twice presented, the second time more fully. That third time she was (as was I, who at her request had come with her) treated so rudely that she left the Embassy fuming.

The application was rejected by a junior consular official who spoke bad Thai and seemed bad-natured and prejudiced against her from the start, and who did not provide us with her name or any explanation of the reasons behind decision she made. This person told me to sit down before I had gotten a whole sentence out, but not before asking me, as if it were any of her business, whether I was married or not. My friend was especially furious because she had overheard a Thai translator tell (in English) the ignorant Nazi behind the bulletproof glass that she thought my friend was most likely a prostitute. They seemed to find all the foreign stamps in her passport (for business trips--Beijing, Cebu, Singapore, etc., as she explained) extremely suspicious. Go figure.

I wrote a letter in April to the U.S. Ambassador in Bangkok, explaining why I felt my friend had been treated unfairly. I received no answer that month. On May 7th I sent an inquiry by e-mail to him, care of the Embassy, and was assured by a staff member that he would get back to me by the end of May. I heard nothing that month either. As a member of Friends of Thailand I was invited to a dinner on June 6th in Berkeley, CA. for the Ambassador, who happened to also be a former Thailand Peace Corps Volunteer. I sat almost directly across the table from the ambassador and we engaged in pleasant conversation the entire evening. When I brought up the issue of the letter, he said that he had forwarded the letter to the Visa Section and that it was wrong that I had not received a reply, suggested he might look at the case and put a note of support in the file, and at the end of the night assured me that I would be hearing from him. "I'll be getting back to you" were the exact words he used.

On July 12th, having heard nothing, I sent another inquiry to the Embassy in Bangkok, attaching another letter to the Ambassador. The same staff member told me he had immediately passed it on to Mr. Johnson. By the end of July, I still had not gotten any response, so I sent one more inquiry to the Embassy. On July 30th I was again told that "a response is coming." I had given several e-mail addresses and a land address in Berkeley, all of which I checked daily for mail, and never received anything in the next months. Finally, on November 30th, I sent an appeal to the Ambassador using his personal e-mail address, which was listed on the Friends of Thailand website. This produced a flurry of e-mail correspondence lasting nearly a week.

First I got a note from the Embassy staff telling me to not use the ambassador's personal e-mail. Attached was a note supposedly sent on August 2nd from the chief of the Visa Section, telling me what I already had known since April, that my friend had been denied a Visa under section 214(a) of the INA. The note did not apologize for the interviewer's rudeness, or the tardiness of the reply, but rather suggested that I must have been mistaken in thinking the interviewer was rude, because they were all trained not to be, and saying that if my friend reapplied, "without evidence of strong ties in Thailand, the application will again be rejected." Since this was not in the least responsive to my letters, I wrote back to the consular chief asking for specifics of the case: what more documentation could my friend have provided?

His reaction to my questions was, again, not responsive, and clearly showed his irritation with me: "I cannot engage in a point by point discussion of the issues you raise." His final sentence was a terse "unless and until she does reapply, I will not reply to any further messages other than purely procedural questions on how she can make her application." When I informed the Ambassador through official e-mail that I wasn't satisfied, he sent me the only personal response I ever got from him, which was what I could only feel was an angry one: " . . . receiving a U.S. visa is not a right, it is a priviledge(sic). It is against the law for anyone to overrule or to instruct a visa officer to change his or her judgement. . . . my assumption was that you wanted an answer to the questions and concerns you had raised . . . I now gather that your primary interest was in getting a reply from me."

I really couldn't let this sit, so I wrote one final note to the ambassador, attempting to correct his mistaken impression, and gave this parting shot: "I am astounded that you would make any reference to things that are 'against the law,' as I have never made a suggestion that you or anyone else interfere with the laws or rules and regulations involved."

Besides the fact that my friend was treated rudely and denied a visa without any clear reason for it, I was treated with disrespect at almost every turn. My first letter was on Apr. 18: it took 3 letters, a personal discussion with the Ambassador, and numerous e-mails to get any answer at all, and that did not come until December (though the consular chief claims it was sent in August, still nearly 4 months after my first inquiry). My questions have never been answered. In summary, both a Thai national and an American citizen with a history of service to his country and Thailand have been ill-served by the system and people who were put in place by the United States to serve them.

I've done it several times and enjoyed it. The bus ride is always a bit of a pain, but take a good book, you won't notice the length of the ride, or the bumps or the curves much. Also, the scenery from the bus it terrific. More shades of green in those jungles than you'll have though of. And you wake rested from the train, I always enjoy those second-class sleepers. They even have air-con now.

No news here.

Islam is the most intolerant religion on the planet. Far from sanctioning or condoning murder in the name of Allah, it embraces it.

Absolutely correct.

Whoever bothered to read Al Koran in Spanish (the English translations miss lots of nuances and as of late suffer from an acute case of PC) that has thousands of vocables in Arabic, will find that in the first 10 pages that it is exactly what it mandates: "If the infidel cannot be persuaded to believe in the only true God, Allah and his prophet Mohamed, he should be eliminated."

Yet, Bush and Obama have both stated that Islam is a religion of peace.

The messenger of God Mohamed lead over 40 raids and wars that expanded Islam while he found time to marry Aisha, his second wife, when she was 6. Marriage was consummated when she turned 9.

If I wanted to, I am sure I can cherry pick similarly outdated paragraphs from the bible or whatever religious text you happen to want to bash. But this thread is not about the merits of Islam and specifically, I am sure bashing Islam or Muslims (or any religion) is NOT ALLOWED. You need to get out and meet more Muslims, many of whom are as moderate as your garden variety Christian.

I am not a Muslim but I do find your post above about as hateful as any terrorist can muster. Shame.

Sorry to burst your bubble, friend, but you have obviously not read the Koran. The statement you are responding to is correct, and I don't see anything hateful in it. It's basically just fact. There are passages in the Koran that call for peace, yes, but I think the "cherry-picking" would be more to say those represent Islam. There are many references to "Allah the merciful," but no examples of mercy that I've seen except towards believers. Unbelievers are, in the Koran, nonentities, not worthy of respect. There isn't much about compassion or tolerance in the Koran. Start reading it, I think you'll see.

There certainly are moderate Muslims, but in the current climate, even they have to pretend to sympathize with the militants.

And to say that the above statement is as hateful as the attitudes of the terrorists is extremely misguided. Terrorists call for murder. Pisico simply stated an opinion, and pretty much fact-based, at that.

Surprisingly, the earlier posts seem to have missed one I often go to for secondhand English-language books, and it's pretty good.. I never pay attention to the name, but it is near Villa Market on Sukhumvit. If you get off at Phrom Phong BTS Station, exit on the opposite side of the street from Emporium, walking towards Asoke, between Soi 31 and the Villa Market there, just a couple of doors before the soi where Villa is located, is a pleasant Thai-run second-hand book store which is overflowing with books. There are also books in French, German, Scandanavian languages, and miscellaneous others. One nice thing about this place is that they take books in trade, giving you a good discount on anything else you buy. They don't give much if you're selling for cash, but for trade it's not bad. Highly recommend.

สุวรรณ (souwan) means "gold," one of the many Thai words for gold. ภูมิ (phum, or phumi) means, among other things, "land." So it's "land of gold." You'll find this name scattered around a lot, as a place name or as a surname.

This proves Bill Gates is secretly a Muslim. The star and crescent are cleverly disguised with an extra star at the bottom (actually it's a period . . . Arabic reads right to left). It is probably a signal to give courage to his followers. They are legion, they are everywhere.

Iron Fairies, around Thonglor Soi 12, is pretty crowded a lot of days, but has a cool VIP room upstairs, hidden behind a secret door, and you can rent it, not sure if it would be comfy for 10, but maybe. Check it out. Anyhow Ash, the owner, would probably be able to figure something out for you.

Five-minute walk up the street from me! Siam Paradise Night Bazaar, directly opposite the mouth of Suk. Soi 101/1, about equidistant (7-8 min walk) from either Punnawitthi or Udomsuk BTS stations, which just opened a bit more than a week ago. Stalls not all rented or open yet, but on the weekend it's starting to boom. Big elevated food court fronting right on Sukhumvit, live band weekends starting at 8 or 9, not sure exactly.

I first traveled on that train in Sept. 1965, on my way up to my Peace Corps 2-year assignment right there on the Mekong, in Tha Bor district. Loved it then, and love it now, and in a world of change, it's nice to have some constancy somewhere. Little has changed in the feeling of that ride. I like the second-class sleeper because it's a bit of a party atmosphere, drink beer and meet the neighbors. Ask for a lower berth, they're cooler and have more space.

First class sleeper "is the way to go," as another poster put it, if you're traveling with a spouse, lover, or good friend, and you don't want hustle and bustle around you. 2 bunks, lower bunk can open the curtains and look at the stars. Going as a family, or a party, you can get 2 adjoining compartments, there's a door that can be opened between compartments.

Train's the way to go anywhere in Thailand that it goes. Just IMHO, of course.

I have to say that Skype has easily one of the most confusing websites, and pricing/packaging, I have seen. Perhaps they do this on purpose or maybe it's just incompetence?

This I agree with. It is maddening trying to figure out exactly what is going on. When I open Skype, and it shows who's online, at the top it shows me as having "no subscription." But if I go into my account details, it lists the Skype Pro subscription. I'm just glad I got it when things were still simple . . . they still dock me just $3/mo through Paypal, and nothing has changed that I can see. When I went to their web page and tried to figure things out, though, it was a maze.

I think it's incompetence. Bad design. Maybe managers who are engineers instead of administrators. Who knows, but I think if you get through the maze you can still get a really good deal.