Somtamnication

I read the cnet reviews of the TytnII. What did you pay for yours?

Actually, no one in Thailand gets 10%. About 30% or more is kept for employee breakage and theft. Then and only then is the remainder split among all staff.

Picked up my Prerunner this week. No airbags and no options for it. I have a 4 door version. No automatic available, but rumours abound that next model will have auto.

I had a Toyota 4x4 Sport Cruiser for 4 years. It was a great car. But I miss the automatic feature.

My new one is very top heavy. But what a powerful engine. Great pick up (speed from 0 to whatever).

Some negatives:

Looking at the rear view mirror, you cannot see the top of the tailgate. So difficult to judge where the car is when backing up.

Top heavy. Doing 60 on a curve is not too fast. But I feel the car inclining too much.

I added rubber bumper guards to all four corners. Difficult to judge where the bumper is.

Stereo. With mp3, cassette and cd. Boring green lcd screen. No matter how much you reduce the bass, it is still too strong. I cannot enjoy Pavarotti with this p.o.s!

Positives are many, but the ones I and my family enjoy are:

Wider interior. Passengers in the back still have leg room even after the front seats are pushed to the back at the maximum. Falangs enjoyed the ride more because of the leg room.

You are high! Power....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

From 2nd. to 3rd. to fourth, you can change very fast and it leaves everyone behind.

Higher interior. My tall friends do not hit their heads, so no need to spend more on beer that day!

Smoother shocks, but rear passengers still jump when going over a speedbump. I will change the shocks soon!

Alarm buttons are part of the key.

Cup holders for driver and passenger. 4 cup holders behind.

More document storage. Top and bottom of console panel.

2 12v. power outlets.

Sunglass holder on ceiling. WARNING. Very small, so you people with large 70s style glasses, forget about it.

I paid 749k. 4 doors, tinted windows, liner, alarm with demobilizer (key has a chip inside). No options offered nor asked. Cloth seats. 5 speed.

I bought the Prerunner a couple of days ago. Powerful machine, but top heavy. I can see how the test vehicle would do a two wheeler at a high rate of speed. But I do not speed, particularly on curves.

English language school, not Japanese lang. school. Nova. They will all go to Korea. Not worth coming here.

There is a home grown factory in Villa 2, Phuket Town. 300 baht a panel. But most glass places make them as well. Dirt cheap.

Not really. Remember when you were a kid and you had lots of homework? Not at British Intl.! It is like pulling teeth. NEVER and ZERO textbooks. Way overpriced.

Now if you don´t want your kids to speak like Bush, then QSI nor Montessori is out of the question. However, the lesser of all evils is Kajonkietsuksa. But at every parenting meeting you will meet your child´s new teacher. lol.

Alan, that was sent a year ago. Slow responses does not bode well for QSI.

Hi,

Could anyone give me upto date info, regarding the admittance of 2 children into the Phuket education system. We are planning to leave the UK in February 2007 and commence school after Easter. The British International School would have been ideal, however, we believe it to be far too expensive, therefore, we are at a loose end. The American School hasn`t come back to us yet.

I was interested to read about the Montessori School. What age do they accept children upto?

I would really, really appreciate any info whatsoever, that you could give me.

P.S. One daughter is 11 and the youngest is 7 years

Regards,

Melanie Tennant

I am the Director of QSI and can be reached at 076 453 077.

Alan

Correction 076 354 077

Let´s see.

The issue with Montessori Phuket (wink wink). They have recently become certified by them. For the past 3 odd years they used the Montessori name but was not certified by them. And they changed ownership often.

The kids do run the place. Nothing to do with not knowing the montessori system. Rather, THIS PARTICULAR school is run by kids. I would also suggest that new parents verify how many native speakers (a big selling point for that school) are actually there. Count the philipinos and Indians working there.

No ac in the rooms. Mosquito infested. Kids come back with huge sores due to scratching those bites. Ever heard of dengue fever? Worth the 70k a term? Up2u.

I believe having 25 kids in a classroom with 3 teachers is great. My son is at the Montessori school and I am very pleased with it. He is 9 and we have just moved from America. He is being challenged and is learning far more social studies and science than he did in his old school. The teachers have all been there a minumum of three years. I would have to disagree with the comment that the children there have no critical thinking or reading skills and the person that believes "kids run the school" in a Montessori environment obviously knows very little about the Montessori philosophy.

Speaking only on Phuket, the hospital issued a Thai and an English language BC. Ask for both if possible. Otherwise just have it translated. In any event, they put your passport number on the BC anyway.

OMG! 22k pounds for the Hilux in the UK. That is like over 1.5 million baht!

I was told yesterday that the prerunner 4dr, waiting time is about 10 days. Free 1st class insurance, tags and licenses. Depending on your credit with Thanachart bank, the dealer requests 15% deposit, or 25% for the 4x4. But my bank will allow me to get it for 10% deposit.

I have had a Toyota Sport Cruiser since 2003. Sometime after that they introduced the Chevy pickup.

Mine was a 4x4. I used it maybe 10 times in 4.5 years. I am selling it and buying the prerunner 4x2, as I do not live in the sticks.

In the 4.5 years I have had it, I took it diligently to its service appointments, and sometimes 5km earlier than required. Barring the one time when the battery went dead one morning without any warning, the car was OUTSTANDING.

Service charges were minimal.

Cons... the taxes are high and the insurance is high. You will get the pickup dented on both sides due to motobikes and careless drivers.

I did change the shocks to smooth the ride.

This monday I will get the other one. I cannot wait for it. Powerful truck and good company.

If Chevy had a real american car here, I would buy it. But their pickups are just too small for me.

Considering buying it. Would love to hear any comments on it.

Tks.

A review.

Went there tonight with a friend, also from America.

We missed it first time we drove by, as the large yellow sign does not say Mike´s Burgers, but rather shakes and burgers. The sign with the name of the place is actually facing the mountain, not facing the circle, nor the front of the shop. Beats me.

Pros..... Great 1/3 pound burgers, the triple being about 200 baht. I ordered the bbq pork sandwich and onion rings, coke and a wanilla shake. Outstanding. The pork was fresh, a bit bland on the sauce, great fresh buns. The rings are huge and you get about 7 of them, for 80 baht. The vanilla shake actually had the malt mix in it, so it was great.

My friend ordered the chili burger. The burger was fantastic. It had the large burger patty, ground beef (chili and sauce). They all come with one onion ring. By far the best he has had since moving here 5 years ago.

Clean place, bar stools all around the restaurant and some good wooden chairs and table.

Cons.... The place was out of control at 7 pm. 3 Thai staff and about 15 customers. Alot of work for them and they simply lost it. Wrong orders, 20 minutes to get the orders done and a lot of long faces, both customers and the staff. This staff never worked so hard in their life and they simply had no idea how to queue the orders.

Mike arrived 15 minutes later and he started to straighten the ducks and put them in a row. As a customer, we did not want to hear his screams and arrogance. But he saw the place was a mess and he did what he thought was best to fix the problems.

He apologized to a couple of very pissed off French men. The men were arrogant towards the staff and complained to Mike that they had been waiting 20 minutes. Even after Mike apologized, these frenchies kept going on.

Once Mike can train his staff well enough, this place will be very special for the rest of us. We will both go back. Highly recommended.

Big difference renting a car than renting a house or condo. Big difference renting a house on a flecking mountain versus a house on a normal street or soi. But we are all adults here, except one. lol.

I choose to not have my head up where the sun don´t shine. Due diligence for any building on a mountain is common sense.

Ok, thank god we are back on topic. sigh.

Everyone knows that these hills are a death trap. We know the local govt. looks the other way. Knowing that and knowing the substandard ways of building here, why would anyone buy or rent these locations unless you yourself supervise the entire construction?

2 years ago there were 2 deaths, this week none. Pure luck! Those people need to go out and buy some lottery numbers, they will win!

Thank you for speaking for me. If they are allowed to build, they will come. Just as guilty as the landowners and provincial officials who allow substandard buildings to be built on the island and hills. I could care less who he is a member off. Why some people leave their brains at the airport is beyond me.

Yes, I was being sarcastic. And the people who live in those hills better not complain. I have zero sympathy for them. They should have known better. But you know what? They will continue to build in them thar hills and cut down more hills and mountains.

Just look at that half mountain gone before you get to Gems Gallery off bypass road. That is a disaster waiting to happen. And it will.

I would be very very surprised if insurance companies have policies for those homes. If they do, they are more stupid than I thought.

Why is this happening? Everything in Patong is built with western standards!

That was a joke right?!

I've spent 5 years in the property business in Phuket and could probably count on one hand number of projects that would pass european building regulations...

Just wait and see, there are more stories like this to come(down)... Unfortunately.

And I just love how they start a hillside housing project by cutting down ALL the trees and roots that normaly offers at least a little support to the soil.

I do hope that we get lucky though, and never get any casulties as a result from these greedy developers

The house that is in that photo is rented by one of the members here. I guess he wil be happy to find out, you could not give a shit that he is about to lose all of his possesions. Obviously no one wants to go in their to move the stuff out.

He happens to be overseas at the moment and cannot do much about it.. I heard it has slid even more today.

I brought my electrical horn from the US from my old cruiser. Not an air horn, but the one with a whail. If anything I use the horn more for when kids are in the street, etc and slow motocy in front of me in my lane coming towards me. Without it, I would have hit kids by now.

Don´t worry about the BIBs.

Yes, I was being sarcastic. And the people who live in those hills better not complain. I have zero sympathy for them. They should have known better. But you know what? They will continue to build in them thar hills and cut down more hills and mountains.

Just look at that half mountain gone before you get to Gems Gallery off bypass road. That is a disaster waiting to happen. And it will.

I would be very very surprised if insurance companies have policies for those homes. If they do, they are more stupid than I thought.

Why is this happening? Everything in Patong is built with western standards!

That was a joke right?!

I've spent 5 years in the property business in Phuket and could probably count on one hand number of projects that would pass european building regulations...

Just wait and see, there are more stories like this to come(down)... Unfortunately.

And I just love how they start a hillside housing project by cutting down ALL the trees and roots that normaly offers at least a little support to the soil.

I do hope that we get lucky though, and never get any casulties as a result from these greedy developers

That schools is TTT. Tefl Teacher Training. Run by a guy name Dave. I took the course a while back. He is a good teacher, but often shows up inebriated and the courses go downhill for the final 2 weeks. A shame, as he is a brilliant teacher.

I would recommend Text and Talk. You will regret this other one.

Why is this happening? Everything in Patong is built with western standards!

Where in Chalong?

Therein lies the problem. The Thai media ignores falang victims, but if the falang is bad, watch out! 1000 cameras in your face.

Clearly the local govt needs to step in and help everyone on this island.

Because, truth be told, Phuket has no violence, there is no prostitution, all German restaurants serve fresh food, there is no overcharging and there is no double pricing.