jeffer

Whatever the relatives of anyone hurt or killed by this person decide regarding justice and compensation is fine by me. It's not their fault they are in the situation they are in, it's the fault of the driver of the car. If they decided to accept a payout rather than persue the matter through the courts it would be understandable. Expect real justice in a matter involving a wealthy family in Thailand? Not always going to happen, is it?

Sold my old car, got sick of the maintenance. Looking at getting a replacement in the next few months.

Budget is around 500/600,000 baht. Only need a small to medium sized automatic sedan with good fuel economy and a/c. Used mainly for short distances in and around Bangkok with the occasional weekend upcountry return trip of 400k on mostly okay roads so probably 15,000km a year at most.

One thing I'm having trouble deciding is whether to buy a base model of a new car such as a Honda City (521,000 or 563,000 baht), Honda Jazz, Toyota Vios or Toyota Yaris, or instead buying a 2 or 3 year old Honda Civic or Mitsubishi Lancer for a similar price. Are the differences between the basic and pricier models of these cars mainly cosmetic and comfort or would I really notice the difference in engine size and handling. I plan on renting some of these cars so I can get a better idea of handling but in Bangkok where I do most of my driving it's not like you can use the extra power much as most of my time is spent in heavy traffic anyway.

What do you think, buy basic new or a better model used?

I have NO interest in buying a van or pickup of any kind.

From another news report...

"Chokchai police said Kanpitak appeared to be under severe stress after the accident yesterday and his parents had to pick him up from the police station"

It's about time his parents were charged for being criminally irresponsible in allowing him to get behind the wheel again. From previous comments and now this latest incident it appears they are totally oblivious to any effect the actions of their son has on anyone else. I wonder, in Thai law is there provision to vary the conditions of bail because if there is then a prosecutor should be applying to have added, a condition banning this person from driving until the case is settled at the very least.

Dell are at last going to be selling retail laptops and desktops in Thailand, starting with select PowerBuy stores. Built to order will be available at some point. They will also have an on site after sales service. The Inspiron 1420, XPS M1330, Inspiron 530 and Inspiron 530s will be the model ranges available. Prices will range from 18,500-50,000 baht.

I've flown on a couple of Tiger flights that were only about 60% full. If they cancelled the original flight then presumably they would also have to cancel the onward flight to the next destination also. You do hear of flights from the budget airlines being cancelled but I don't recall too many tales of last minute cancellations. If your flight is to a popular destination then you should be okay.

Never seen it on tv myself and I've seen those re-enactments on Thai news many times.

thanks grtaylor. I will give Villa a look next time I'm in Suk, doesn't have to be the same brand so similar is okay.

crossy, that price was per case so only a $1.50 per can but probably translates to 150 baht in Villa but still okay as I don't use it all the time.

Scott do you know if either of the insurance companies pay for the rental car that we have been lumbered with?

cheers

Shouldn't your girlfriend be asking your insurance company or insurance agent this question? It's pointless anyone on an internet forum saying you can or you can't unless they have read your insurance policy.

Can you buy cooking spray like Pure & Simple in Bangkok? I've had a look around and asked in some big supermarkets but no one has any idea of what I'm after. If you have actually seen it with your own eyes in Bangkok then can you tell me where please.

With all those public re-enactments I'm always surprised some relative doesn't turn up and attack the accused but it never seems to happen.

The smiles might be a show of nervousness, least that's what a few Indonesians told me when I've commented on the way some Indonesians in similar situations also seem to be smiling at the cameras.

Have to agree with the filming of hospital patients. How that can be allowed amazes me at times or does someone slip a 100 baht to hospital security to let them follow the injured person all the way into the operating theatre?

Well again - I just don't see why people are complaining about this.

What's not to get. Luck of the draw, time of the day, short staffed, whatever, many people, including myself, have encountered lengthy delays at immigration which for a new airport isn't good enough. If you haven't experienced this then lucky for you. Returning to Thailand I've found it 50-50. Either I'm through within 15 minutes or it's been an hour or longer waiting with hundreds of others in lines that barely move. At Don Muang I can't recall waiting more than 20 minutes when entering the country, ever.

Remember the daughter of the Bangkok Film Festival official who was supposed to have had money transferred to her account? The reports at the time said she was working for the Finance Ministry and earning less than 10,000 baht a month if I remember correctly. If a person with good family connections like her doesn't earn a lot then it makes you wonder if there can really be very many Thais earning over 50,000 per month.

I just arrived home from 7-11 and bought 6 small cans of coke. There were 12 straws thrown in

Maybe they thought you were sharing your drink with a friend...

Great isn't it when you see someone here fill a plastic bag with rubbish only to throw it in to a canal because that's closer than walking to the nearest bin. All down to the lack of education. Kids copy what their parents do unless taught otherwise. There are a few places alongside the fence of a road I take near the airport where i think the same huge collection of plastic bags has been building for several years. Everytime it's windy it's like it's snowing.

correct

suvanabhumi doesnt have the same level with changi, so theres no need to compare

Can't agree. I think there is every reason to compare when it's obvious one place has got it right first go and one certainly has not. Wasn't Suvanabhumi supposed to be another Thai hub? Can you imagine what things would be like if traffic were ever to raise to the same level as in Singapore.

I'll be glad when they finally get the train service running and I can maybe be done with the taxi touts although they are probably formulating some plan to monopolize all the taxi stands at the train stations. I will say that when you do make it to the taxi desk that lately I haven't had any problem getting a taxi to use the meter which is one good thing. Forgot to mention that when I went outside there was hardly anyone around to harass me this time. Chatted briefly to what seemed to be a senior security person who said he was there to help stop people being set upon and yes, there was no one within 100 metres of him compared to other times when there were a bunch of touts just waiting to pounce.

I was at the airport last Wednesday morning. No waiting at Jetstar, processed in 2 minutes. Wander over to immigration at 7.50am to see a mass of people not far off overflowing into the main hall. As a rough guess I'd say there would have been 18 immigration staff working, each line had 25-30 people waiting. Even the diplomatic line was just as long which is the one many Thai Visa members use... Took about 35 minutes for me to get attended to.

Surprisingly in Singapore it took about 15 minutes to get stamped in, longest I've ever waited. Seems everything is at a crawl in Singapore due to the escape of a terrorist. Truck drivers at the land border are being finger printed and the newspaper was reporting waits of 15 hours for them to cross.

Returning on Saturday night immigration was deserted but it was still taking a minimum of 3 minutes per person to be processed.

Taxi touts are still out in force. I must be getting old as they were all offering to take me to Pattaya and I wasn't even wearing a football shirt!

If anyone wants to see how good Suvarnabhumi could have been then you need only go to the new Terminal 3 in Singapore. Now that's how you set up a world class airport.

Word is that Kanpitak Pachimsawas and Sornram Theppitak are soon to be appointed official role models for driver education and traffic safety in Thailand.

Where's the blue-ray player or Blu-Ray burner? clearly its the next generation . Its a must have if i was building it.

are blu-ray burners that cheap in Thailand now to be able to fit into a 20,000 baht budget? last one I saw, okay it was at least a year ago, cost more back then than Bill wants to spend on his entire setup.

I have the TOT 1024/512 package.

Results: For the past month, my average download speed has been 106.9kb/sec. (upload: 48.6kb/sec). 10% of advertised speed. Absolute trash.

Is your average download speed 106.9KB/sec or 106.9kbps?

It's learnt that Thai AirAsia was not keen to operate the Johor Baharu-Bangkok route as it wanted to concentrate on strengthening its existing destinations while looking into the possibility of entering the Bangkok-Jakarta route and expanding its China base.

Source: Bernama - 25 January 2008

So when I flew last month Bangkok - Jakarta return on Air Asia it just looked like an Air Asia plane but wasn't really?

Is there anything they can't copy in Asia?

With all the fuss being made over the current tv series about airline staff, it made me think how Thai television and cinema portray other occupations. If yelling, screaming and fighting meant a show should be yanked off the air then there wouldn't be any dramas left on Thai tv, surely.

I don't watch Thai soaps and movies a lot, mainly in passing but one occupation I don't recall getting much of an airing apart is the police force. There are certainly plenty of American movies e.g. American Gangster, The Departed and of course maybe the most famous of all, Serpico about the police and corruption, and it's only an opinion but I think many people would consider the police in America less corrupt than their Thai counterparts. The Departed is an American adaptation of a Hong Kong movie, Infernal Affairs, so they're not shy about depicting this type of thing either. Hong Kong was infamous for police corruption in the past but an enormous crackdown some years back seems to have made a big difference to the extent that I think most people visiting Hong Kong today would have some trust in the police whereas I doubt the same could be said about Thailand.

Almost anyone who has spent some time in Thailand will have experienced or have some knowledge of police corruption e.g. being asked to pay an on the spot fine for some traffic infringement whether true or imagined, it's a common occurence apparently, but I can never recall seeing on any Thai tv show someone getting stopped by the police and slipping the police officer a few baht so they can be on their way. I was wondering if anyone could give me an example of a Thai television drama or movie that covers the issue of police corruption, or is that simply another taboo subject?

Police corrupt in Thailand? Next you'll be saying they kidnap and extort people...

The Nation

I had this problem with Air Asia twice and found it was to do with 'Verified by Visa'

Late in the booking process there was a popup I think that asked if I wanted to register for vbv now or another time. I said another time and the transaction was declined. I was able to pay for my ticket by phone the next day. I also rang my credit card company and they said they would have to reset something for me. Same thing happened about 6 months later when again I said do it another time so the next time this happened I signed up for 'Verified by Visa' and everthing was okay.

Instead. Take positive action:

SLAM THE DOOR AND WALK AWAY!

Are you with me or agin me?

Don't you know anything?

It's get out... leave the door open... then walk away... less effort required and much more effective...

Jingthing

Uh....take a chill pill, dude!!

Although you ARE sounding a touch hysterical, I suspect it is a Weho-type hysteria.....

Until you reminded me I thought it was Weho. Sure he didn't get banned and this is his spare handle?

Open Real Player, 'CTRL +O' and cut and paste the url of the video you wish to play.