samsara

has any info ever been given as to where the money from the prince promotion tour goes?

Riiiight..... I forgot about that... while I was paragliding, sitting idly in my harness holding on to a rope.... actually two ropes. I wonder if that makes a difference.

Or maybe it was when I was drift-diving a coral reef in Palau, sitting idly in my BCD harness not even holding on to a rope?

Or... maybe you might wish to reconsider your definition.

No, not at all. I don't agree that it's marketing. I find zip-lining to be a wonderful adventure activity. Especially when I set up my own zip-line across between two peaks as was its origins. Absolutely hair-raising, which is one reason why, personally, I don't wish to spend 2,000 baht to zip-line several meters off the ground in Chiang Mai. The other is that I don't trust the equipment used by tourist venues. If I don't know how many 'falls' a safety line has already taken, I'm certainly not going to trust my life to it. I think anyone who does is foolish. Frankly, I'm amazed at the blatant foolishness of the tourists who put their lives in the hands of untrained individuals with unknown equipment. But that's their choice. This is Thailand. We all know the reality that entails. Sad, but true.

youre actually comparing paragliding and diving of any sort to ziplining?

so adventure = hair-raising...ok...time to go watch a scary movie 'adventure'.

As the Internet so readily shows, there are thousands of people who DO consider zip-lining an adventure activity. And while there are a handful of ThaiVisa posters who don't, I'm going with the majority here. I'm going to call zip-lining an adventure activity.

Personally, I don't find movies particularly scary, but if that's how you like to get your adventure, please go right ahead. To each his own, I guess.

and, personally, i dont find ziplining to be of any particular value in terms of 'adventure'.

the internet also says every single woman makes $5,865/month by sitting at home, yada yada. its marketing tactics, dude. next youre gonna tell me that they dont tranquilize the tigers and that the speed train is really coming to chiang mai before 2020

but at least youve now realized ziplining is not a sport, but rather an activity...akin to going to a petting zoo...or sitting in one of the duck boats at huay tong tao.

Riiiight..... I forgot about that... while I was paragliding, sitting idly in my harness holding on to a rope.... actually two ropes. I wonder if that makes a difference.

Or maybe it was when I was drift-diving a coral reef in Palau, sitting idly in my BCD harness not even holding on to a rope?

Or... maybe you might wish to reconsider your definition.

Let's for a moment believe that you are correct...

Then why do so many thousands of companies call it an 'adventure sport?' Are they all incorrect? All of them?

It's not just one or two, you know. It's thousands of them. I listed five companies right here in Chiang Mai that call it an adventure sport. Are they wrong? Are all the thousands of companies giving it the wrong name. Or are you?

so youre one of those people who accept all marketing as fact?

No, not at all. I don't agree that it's marketing. I find zip-lining to be a wonderful adventure activity. Especially when I set up my own zip-line across between two peaks as was its origins. Absolutely hair-raising, which is one reason why, personally, I don't wish to spend 2,000 baht to zip-line several meters off the ground in Chiang Mai. The other is that I don't trust the equipment used by tourist venues. If I don't know how many 'falls' a safety line has already taken, I'm certainly not going to trust my life to it. I think anyone who does is foolish. Frankly, I'm amazed at the blatant foolishness of the tourists who put their lives in the hands of untrained individuals with unknown equipment. But that's their choice. This is Thailand. We all know the reality that entails. Sad, but true.

youre actually comparing paragliding and diving of any sort to ziplining?

so adventure = hair-raising...ok...time to go watch a scary movie 'adventure'.

Zip lining is not about risk taking. It's an adrenaline rush in a controlled environment. Off piste skiing, free fall sky diving, are adventure sports. Zip lining is a theme park ride, like Alton Towers, & Disney Land, where deaths result from bad organisation.

Let's for a moment believe that you are correct...

Then why do so many thousands of companies call it an 'adventure sport?' Are they all incorrect? All of them?

It's not just one or two, you know. It's thousands of them. I listed five companies right here in Chiang Mai that call it an adventure sport. Are they wrong? Are all the thousands of companies giving it the wrong name. Or are you?

so youre one of those people who accept all marketing as fact?

Zip lining is not about risk taking. It's an adrenaline rush in a controlled environment. Off piste skiing, free fall sky diving, are adventure sports. Zip lining is a theme park ride, like Alton Towers, & Disney Land, where deaths result from bad organisation.

Let's for a moment believe that you are correct...

Then why do so many thousands of companies call it an 'adventure sport?' Are they all incorrect? All of them?

It's not just one or two, you know. It's thousands of them. I listed five companies right here in Chiang Mai that call it an adventure sport. Are they wrong? Are all the thousands of companies giving it the wrong name. Or are you?

how can sitting idly in a harness and holding onto a rope possibly be considered a sport?

You 'may' wish to do a Google Search using as the search parameters 'adventure sports,' 'adventure sports zip line,' or zip line adventure sports.' There are several hundred websites on just the first few pages that disagree with you...

Let me introduce you to just a few of them, close to home:

(NOTE: These are all Chiang Mai listings, and all have either the word Adventure or Extreme right in their titles and ALL include zip-lining.)

http://tqmmathailand.com/adventure-activities/

http://www.getyourguide.com/chiang-mai-l271/extreme-sports-adrenaline-tc85/

http://chiangmai.thaivisa.com/adventure-sports-activities-in-chiang-mai/#.VZc75OH1-Os

http://www.actionsportasia.com/what-is-the-best-zipline-in-chiang-mai/

http://www.travelhubchiangmai.com/adventure_activities.html

We could go on and on, but I hope you get the idea by now. There is nothing ridiculous in the analogies. Only in your definitions.

Google is hardly the arbiter of definitions. It is merely a search engine. It puts out results based on algorithms that incorporate things like the wording within a site. If a zipline website chooses to use those words--as it is trying to give the appearance of being an extreme adventure sport, then that is what Google will show.

I see you choose to argue 'Google' rather than the thousands of different companies offering zip-lining and calling it 'Adventure Sport.' Google isn't defining anything. It's simply giving us access to (in this case) the world view of what constitutes an Adventure Sport. That a handful people posting to ThaiVisa wish to dispute those thousands is fine. You can call a sparrow a brick if you wish to, but the fact is, it will still be able to fly.

I'm with you Folk Guitar , some say on here zip lining is not a sport ,not an adventure nor extreme. How do these one clarify what is sport and what is not. What about darts , ok in a pub and could be dangerous if the dart hit a bystander, Footy is a sport but no adventure and not extreme. My point is if there is an element of risk to ones health such as rafting , bungy jumping or zip lining then folk will do it. I have done a bit of rafting on flat water barely making 3 knots, but I go out on my PCX every week and take a chance , the car would be safer but no fun. An adventure sport is in the eye if the beholder not in a dictionary.

ziplining requires no skill. skill would be the operative word when determining if something is, indeed, a sport. hooking oneself up to a harness and sitting in the air is not exactly skillful.

therefore, ziplining is definitely not a sport. it could be termed an 'adventure activity'. but, i, too, would agree that sitting on your ass in the air is no more 'adventure' filled than sitting in an airplane at takeoff/landing. should we now google 'commercial airline adventure'?

pm me the details.

amazing thread. great for a mental reset.

I live in the boonies with a very poor internet connection. "Streaming" here is like "dripping" so it's not an option.

According to Gamepass, you need 800K download.....

have a 13MB 3BB connection. streamed 4 gms in HD (splitscreen) for 3 hours last night. barely a hiccup.

get nfl gamepass. worth every baht.

Daamnaam, they did post prices, but the post got deleted.

A bit odd I think. All this talk about a new bar, but then when they respond it gets deleted. The gist of it was that they've a taken most comments on board and adjusted their prices to what would be quite reasonable for most of their prospective customers in Chiang Mai. Similar prices to the likes of UN Irish if I remember rightly.

must pay to advertise. its forum econ 101. the possessor of 900 posts...your confusion is puzzling.

Fair comments, Chiengmaijoe, agree with most of what you say, and I also wouldnt want to be embarrassed when out socialising. The fact about Chiang Mai, though, unlike Bangkok is that most of the foreign residents are living here in retirement and generally most people would be living on quite a bit less than pre retirement days, and as a result, budgets do have to be balanced.

As for The Game, I still want it to succeed despite early teething problems, but in order to do so, the owners will have to take a look at pricing strategies because Chiang Mai is not Bangkok, and what they seem to have done so far is replicated everything from their place on Sukhumvit Road including, crucially, prices. In order to succeed, a place surely has to work around and alongside the competition, and unless theres something totally unique, which in this case there isnt, people will make choices based on value for money, and as many have pointed out, there are loads of places where you can comfortably watch sports, whilst drinking cheaper beer and eating decent but cheaper food!

I m not a fan of the expression "market forces" but in this case its a direct and crucial issue. The Game is convenient for me because I live less than ten minutes away, but if the place is to attract people to drive from the city centre, or the other side of town, it will have to make people want to go there, and so far none of that is happening. In simple terms, there needs to be a full range of the sports people want to see (they are available, as the UN Irish proves), reasonable priced drinks, not just happy hours which end at 6pm, and right now the food looks OK but is being charged out at Bangkok not Chiang Mai prices.

The other thing crucial to success is to have a streetwise sports geek who not only knows whats on, but also how to get it (and I dont mean illegal streams which could be dangerous for them with the law). People should be able to walk right in five minutes before a particular event starts, be it The Ryder Cup, or Formula 1, or important football games, confident in the knowledge that it will be onscreen without needing to ask staff to look for stuff!

Pretty much sums it up.

First I wish this new venture the best. Over the years business from Bangkok and Pattaya have tried to expand to Chiang Mai and business from Chiang Mai have tried to expand in Bangkok and Pattaya both directions they failed. Demographics of these two regions are polar opposites. On a scale of 1 to 10 I give the success rate a 4.

Unless drastic price decreases happen i give it a 2.5 % chance.

Mostly depends on how stubborn/cashed up the owner is. The current offering does not stand a chance, but if he's willing to bleed his pockets for a year or more...who knows. 5 star prices for a slightly above avg exp does not work when there are other options. They'll surely tweak stuff in the coming weeks. But they missed the mark so badly initially, I fear the outlook's rather dim.

80 baht for a can of coke

that would be a bargain if youre at...umm...maybe one of those changklan road karaoke clubs...or on a virgin atlantic flight in SPACE.

they will be opening another in town within 6 months.

imo, its a tad pricey. not sure who their targeted clientele is, either. its for american sports, but they aint on during thai hours (unless you wanna wake up at 9 am to watch sports and drink beer! oops.

the BIG disappointment is the pool tables. brunswick, yes, but 6 footers and half the shooting areas are obstructed. not exactly going to draw any real players.

That will probably coincide with KF one closing down. Though i hope not.

Get AFL on and lower the food / pint prices and you may get a few of us locals in there.

hell, KF wont be going 100% until about then!

they will be opening another in town within 6 months.

imo, its a tad pricey. not sure who their targeted clientele is, either. its for american sports, but they aint on during thai hours (unless you wanna wake up at 9 am to watch sports and drink beer! oops.

the BIG disappointment is the pool tables. brunswick, yes, but 6 footers and half the shooting areas are obstructed. not exactly going to draw any real players.

if youre asking people to pay 30-40% more to eat/drink (coke for 80 thb!), then you best have something to make the experience amazing. those are 5 star hotel and nightclub prices. watching lower tier US sports on replay does not equate...

and, no, it aint hooters, either. anyone whos been there knows its not even close

dont see a way to join.

have an entry fee? 

without one people will lose interest fast and not set lineups, etc. = lg ruined. 

heres a video of where i used to live until about a month ago. who knows the area?

good stuff. is that the panasonic or gopro?

some low aerial images of 2 hotels going up on sam lan road near prasing post office.

I use OpenVPN. Believe you get 100MB free but the packages are pretty reasonable. They are data usage and not time usage which to me is an advantage in that I don't have to pay every month for something I may not use that much. I upgraded to a 100GB package for $20.00USD. They have bigger packages. Once the 100GB or whatever usage package you get is finished, you then re-fill so there are no time limits on the usage, that is it doesn't expire. You can see the supported countries on their website which includes UK/US.

Price structure here - https://www.privatetunnel.com/index.php/price.html

privatetunnel is where its at. US and UK servers *(among others)...reliable speeds of 3+. also very cheap.

Great stuff! Are you just guessing when you frame the shot, or do you have a monitor with you?

have a live feed.

for the thapae flight, was a little worried about going up around the military dudes. but they barely noticed and certainly didnt care about me at all.

rode around for a bit just past midnight. everything closed, even 7-11s, for the most part. soldiers riding in hummers and trucks (about 50 persons total) with what looked like m16s were making the rounds in the taphae/loh kroh area (to scan for open businesses, more than likely). passed right by tapae gate (inside the moat) and saw 3 soldiers standing with guns at the entrance. went through a makeshift checkpt outside the moat (in front of mcdonalds), not stopped, and about 10 old military guys were sitting around tables to the side.

lets hope this doesnt extend into the weekend...