jfchandler

Will try the BBQ Sandwich King burger next time - may have to pass this week though as I have a new staff member starting on Wednesday.

Indeed, BBQ King does a pretty good and very generously sized burger, though the restaurant's location is a bit of a drive outside the center of town. Below the top two photos are my recent Metro Burger there, for 209 baht. The third photo is the menu/web site photo of the 219 baht version that includes cheese and bacon (which I chose to skip for my order).

Need to also add, apart from the very good BBQ ribs on the menu, the freshly prepared BBQ beans and cole slaw (special add-ons to the permanent menu) are both outstanding and very addictive. They tend to be available on the weekends and often sell out then, so check or call the restaurant first if you're wanting either of them during the week, so you won't be disappointed.

Owner Mark is a gracious host and will go out of his way to make your order the way you want it. On the most recent visit, we also tried his smoked chicken quesadillas for 169 baht and found a very tasty favorite with plenty of melted cheese and chicken inside.

Note: BBQ King's regular burgers and sandwiches come with the standard side order of tater puffs (AKA tater tots), and NOT french fries.

http://www.bbqsandwichking.co.th/menu.html

Someone above talked about the staff uniforms, the cuteness of the nurses, the cleanness of the facility and the newness of the equipment as reasons for preferring Bumrungrad. I'm not sure those would be the highest on my criteria for where to seek medical care.

Without commenting one way or the other on the problem described immediately above, I'd suggest that most people's biggest concern ought to be finding doctors and support staff who are skilled, competent and operate in a setting that facilitates them making proper medical diagnoses and then directing the appropriate treatment.

OK, I think it's time to get back to actual burger "trip reports"...and photos as well....

It's one thing to just say... such and such place was good...period... and nothing more... But that doesn't really help any of the readers here decide what's worth their time....and money...and taste.

So, to put in another way, get off your buns and bring on the beef!!!

Sounds like we're developing a consensus here: as I reported in my review earlier in this thread, I thought MOS had great fries.... fresh and tasty, not too salty... OneT, I thought the ones I had were just normal cut, not thick cut, but not shoestring either....

Sab, when I was there at MOS, I had two of their burgers, and the regular one I had didn't come with tonkatsu sauce at all, which would be the brownish, worstershire-type sauce, but rather was a not particularly tasty tomatoey slather of stuff. Put that together with a patty that tasted more like meat loaf to me, and it just didn't float my boat.

But I will confess, speaking personally, I love many varieties of "fusion" food as a native of Los Angeles, where all the different ethnic influences tend to blend together and create some vary interesting eating variations. So if someone wants to take the basic American hamburger and make it GOOD or BETTER thru adaptation, I'm all for that as an option.

Somebody around these parts, as I recall, is doing a blue cheese burger with the blue cheese as a stuffing inside the beef patty. Now that's an adaptation I'd be interested to try. Same with a good guacamole burger, bring it on. But tomato sauce???? Naaaaaahhhhhhhh......

Address: 413/10-12 Soi Sukhumvit 55,Klongton Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10500

Tel: 02-3900760

Opening Hours : Monday - Friday 09:00-21:00

Saturday - Sunday 07:00-21:00

http://www.littlehome.co.th/index.php

http://thaicuisine.com/thailand/rest_30647Xm.html

http://lolo-eatablethai.blogspot.com/2008/...ome-bakery.html

A man after my own heart, UG... Bravo!!!!

Hehehehehe..... I always believe in full disclosure.... So if the burger's got beetroot or any other (IMHO) God-Awful things in it, I want to know....and avoid it!!!

Actually, lately, I've taken to buying frozen Thai-French ground beef patties at the local Villa Markets and cooking them at home with just salt, pepper and a bit of sprinkled seasoning.... And my verdict is, that approach ends up being better than about 90% of the various different kinds of burgers offered at different restaurants around town. I'm not feeling so "burger cranky" now that at least I have a home remedy I can take when in need. I think the TF burger patties are coming in 3-patty-packs for about 60 baht per pack.

There are, of course, a few commercial exceptions, as mentioned in the thread above...

Thanks for the input. I put the list together because I remember that when I lived at the end of Sukhumvit there was no green space to enjoy or ride my bike.

Funny you should mention that... as I live around Sukhumvit, and just got my bicycle shipped over from the U.S. as a second year anniversary shipment, and had it arrive at my home here just last week. I'm in longish walking distance of Benjakiti Park, and I've been there enough times to know the bicycle path there is good enough quality and certainly long enough to provide for quite an enjoyable ride.

What's not so great, unless you're carrying your bicycle on a rack on a car, is trying to GET your bicycle to Benjakiti for riding there.... given that the wisdom of trying to ride a bicycle on Sukhumvit or Ratchadaphisek roads is certainly questionable.

So, if anyone else has any good suggestions or good bicycle routes for riding around Central BKK, preferably where you stand a reasonable chance of NOT getting run over and killed, please do chime in...

Understand what you are saying, Sabaijai... And I enjoy your posts... As you can see from mine, of course I did try the burgers there at MOS Paragon, and even posted a review here earlier in the thread including photos of the items I had that day.

But, the pizza analogy doesn't quite work for me. Indeed, there are many different kinds and styles of pizza, but for me, they all tend to taste in some way like pizza, no matter what kind of crust and such.

IMHO, there's certainly nothing BAD about the MOS burger.

But, as an American, it just doesn't taste like any kind of real beef hamburger that I've ever eaten in my life -- not Burger King, not McDonald's (I only mention those because they are known by non-Americans here), or not any of the many places of all kinds and stripes where one might find hamburgers cooked in the States. So by that standard, and you certainly are free to challenge that standard, MOS's just doesn't cut the mustard.

So, it may be a Japanese style hamburger, or a Japanese-Thai style hamburger, but it's certainly not an American-style hamburger. How's that????

If that report is true re Pattaya, then it's nice to know that they're providing an easy way to make you or your family sick at a bargain price... Need to save your baht for those doctor bills coming down the road...

Seems pretty silly to me to be paying tax in a country you are not even living in, obviously taking in to account that US citizens have to file their tax returns where ever they are in the world....

Dunno what to say about that... Indeed, U.S. citizens living in Thailand have to file tax returns and pay federal tax on taxable income/earnings etc. from the U.S.

There is some advantage though in that some people may not be responsible for state income taxes while living abroad. I gather different states have different rules about that, and it depends on the particular circumstances of the individual.

To the OP, I've been there and gone down these roads myself...as a former Los Angeles resident.

Some simple things to understand here....

Basically, you cannot get a B visa from the Thai consulate in L.A. Don't even bother talking to them.

However, with sponsorship from the appropriate consulting firm here in Thailand, like some of those you have already talked to, you can easily get a one-year B visa from almost any of the "honorary" Thai consulates that are spread around the U.S. Don't even need to go there physically, just complete all your paperwork and supporting documents, as the consultant folks will guide, and send it express mail with your passport to the honorary consulate, and you'll get your passport/visa stamp back within a week or so.

What you're asking for is a multiple entry, non-immigrant B (business) visa that will be valid from one year of issue. It will require you to do visa runs outside Thailand, once you arrive here, every 90 days, during the duration of your visa. You can figure those one-day bus trips to Cambodia will cost you about 2000 baht per. The Thai govt. fee for the mult entry application is $175, plus whatever you pay to your consulting firm. Once you get the B visa, you can do another visa run just before the one-year expires to gain another 90 days...yielding a total of 15 months stay based on your original one-year visa.

On your very first arrival to Thailand, you don't need a B visa. You can come here up to 90 days per 6 month period on visa exempt entries, and/or can apply for tourist visas from either regular or honorary Thai consulates in the U.S. When I first arrived, I simply came on visa exempt entries and used that time to consult in person in BKK with the appropriate folks, before going back to the U.S. do prepare my actual move and finish the details about applying for the B visa (by that time knowing I had a 100% certain route that would meet all my needs). You do, however, need to apply for the B visa while in the U.S. You cannot apply for that while you are staying in Thailand.

You also don't want to apply for the B visa too far in advance before your actual move, because once they issue it, the validity time will start running.

And, about the #6 item mentioned far above, I've never heard of any notion of being able to qualify for a work permit solely on the basis of having been issued a B visa. I too in the early early going had chatted online with the Siam Legal folks in Las Vegas, and ultimately found their guidance to be not always accurate. But, I know people here in Bangkok who have had very good experiences dealing with their BKK staff.

To the OP, I explored similar issues a year ago when I first moved here. I didn't need to work, but I wanted to explore the possibilities if I wanted to do consulting in my particular field here in Thailand. So I talked at length with Sunbelt Asia, and we went over all the details of setting up my own Thai company, of which I could be a 100% owner as an American, and what that would involve, as a means of getting both a visa and a work permit.

The bottom line, in the end, was that doing what that involved to work legally here was going to be too expensive and too much hassle for me. It would have involved renting an "office space" because even extra space in my home would not satisfy the Thai law, paying Thai taxes based on a minimum salary under Thai law for an American citizen, paying for accounting services and then audits and filings associated with my company, plus the various fees associated with work permit applications and such. And of course, needing to maintain all that on an ongoing basis (not just one-time start-up costs) in order to maintain the company and visa/work permit status.

In the end as long as those rules stay in place and my potential earnings/amount of time I wanted to devote to working weren't so great, I decided just being "retired" was a more enjoyable way to go. Just to be clear, the work I was envisioning would have been physically here in Thailand, not tele-working as you describe. So I really would have needed to do all that if I wanted to work. If I was just tele-working to the U.S. as in your case, I probably would have followed the path that Jing and others suggest...since it really is outside of Thailand.

As to taxes, if you are tele-working here in Thailand but your business is based in the U.S. and the money is circulating in the U.S., then you would be liable for federal income taxes on that -- just the same as if you were living in the U.S. There is no living abroad tax "exemption" for that kind of income. Likewise, if your company is based/incorporated in some particular U.S. state, then I believe you'd probably also be liable for state income tax in that state.

Where the so-called $80,000 exemption comes into play is if someone is living in Thailand and being legally paid here and thus being taxed in Thailand. In that instance, to avoid double taxation, the first $80,000 or so of your Thailand income abroad is not subject to U.S. taxes. That is my recollection of how that process works.

BENCHASIRI PARK : Central. Small park on Sukhumvit Road opposite soi 35. Small but pleasant bit of green space on Sukhumvit. Bring your packed lunch and people watch.

BTS accessible.

About Benjasiri Park, it is located along Sukhumvit Road halfway between Sois 22 and 24, the latter also being the location of The Emporium shopping center and the BTS Phrom Phong station there. Like Benjakiti Park, it also includes a lake, albeit a smaller one. Very pleasant walking path around the park, but no significant bike path here. More than Benjakiti, Benjasiri has large lawn areas well-covered with older trees, meaning there's more shade to be found for those who like to take a blanket or mat and lay out on the grass. Hidden in the back of the park is a beautiful and large swimming pool that is open by annual membership, which can easily be obtained by paying a very small fee and producing some documents including a doctor's clearance. There are one or two concession stands in the park for buying drinks and snacks, and often, especially in the evening, a bunch of food carts gathered out front along Sukhumvit Road. The park used to have a decorative water fountain show at various times during the day near its front entrance, but not sure if that still is occurring.

To the OP, just curious, why are you compiling the list...and where will it end up?

I'm glad you're doing it ...and sharing it here for improvement/corrections.... Some things here I already knew... some are surprises....

About Benjakiti, it adjoins the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, where there also is an MRT station of the same name. The center now has a pretty good sized collection of shops and eateries inside that remain open even when the center is not hosting some big event. So after a day or afternoon at the park, you can go there for a bite or drink.

As for the park, it has a lovely, wide and well-maintained walking/jogging course that goes all the way around the very large lake there. Likewise, there is a narrower but likewise well-maintained bicycle path just outside the walking path that likewise circles the lake. People bring their own bikes or can rent from a small stand in the park near the center for 20 baht per hour. At that stand, you also can rent paddle or oar boats to take out on the lake, which usually has decorative fountains spraying in its midst.

Around the perimeter of the lake and paths, there are many benches for sitting and also some drinking fountains, as well as lawn areas for sitting. This park also is a very short walk from the Asoke BTS and Sukhumvit MRT stations at the corner of Ratchadaphisek and Sukhumvit roads. This park is usually almost empty during the day, but gets busier in the evenings as people go out to exercise after work. Walking, jogging and bicycling seem to be the main activities/attractions here.

The park has sufficient on-site car parking for those wanting to drive there. The main car entrance is off Ratchadaphisek Road, as you head down from Sukhumvit Road. The park also seems to have a well-staffed security patrol on-duty all the time, with officers stationed throughout and sometimes riding around on bicycles. So the park has a very safe and secure feeling.

I myself like Sunrise at Soi 12 and eat there regularly for the food.... But I can vouch for what Dotcom reported above...since we ate together that day.

My order, stock off the menu without any changes or adds, came out fine. His order, which involved some paid extras, came out without them. And when he asked the staff to remedy the problems, they didn't do so in any way.

I mean, for example, it's pretty easy and unmistakable to see if sour cream has been added to the inside of a beef burrito or not... He paid extra for it, but sure didn't get any inside his burrito... That was very obvious to see. And when he asked the waiter about it, the waiter's only response was, it's already inside -- when it was easy to see as I also did, there was nothing creamy/white there at all.

About the flies... dunno what to say about that... That day/afternoon, there indeed was quite a flock buzzing around the inside of the restaurant. Never myself noticed that as a problem before. Maybe somebody had left one of the doors open earlier in the day. Again, I can vouch for Dotcom's report about that...at least for that afternoon.

Good french fries there....but their burger, IMHO, strains to be called a burger... What exactly it is... I'm not too sure... As previously reviewed...

About the rules for monks and smoking, the TGF and I were traveling lately thru Chumpon, and ended up waiting for a bus near an elderly man who clearly was Thai, and was dressed in orange monk's robes.

As we sat waiting having some water at a street cafe, the monk sat alone at an adjoining table, calmly smoking a cigarette. I quietly asked the GF, "Gee, I wouldn't think monks are supposed to be smoking", as in, no smoke, no drink, no XXX.... She replied, yes, really he shouldn't be smoking. But as an elder monk, he was going to do what he wanted to do.

Reminded me of a story in the news a couple months ago on the outskirts of Pattaya wherein the real police caught a bunch of real monks, some young and some really older, partaking in pleasures of the flesh with some local female courtesans... The real monks got arrested, and supposedly were going to be bounced out of their temple.

Just goes to show you...it's not easy to lead a virtuous life in Thailand....

Glad it's working well for you thus far, Lom....

One thing I hadn't mentioned previously...since all my focus here before was on using the MJ in Thailand to call back to the U.S.....

But also, for us U.S. folks who periodically travel back to the U.S. for business or family obligations, the easily carried MJ can likewise be used for free and unlimited domestic calls in the U.S. to any # in the U.S. or Canada.

So, it makes for a very cost effective alternative to the sometimes ridiculously expensive phone rates that many U.S. hotels and chains try to extort from their guests...especially any non-local calls to other area codes or states from your hotel room.

On my recent trips back to the U.S., I simply carried my laptop and MJ unit together, and plugged it in as soon as I settled in a hotel (which was always chosen on the basis of having free broadband included). From that point on, I never even picked up a hotel phone.

All my outbound calls from my hotel rooms were made with MJ. And of course, my U.S. area code MJ number in Thailand is the name number when I'm using the MJ in the U.S. (that being the number of my choice that I've selected when signing up for MJ) so thus all my family and friends already know the number. They call the same one, regardless of whether I'm away in Thailand or staying locally in a hotel.

Perfect....

PS - I must confess, I never had any connection/call quality problems when using the MJ with U.S. hotel broadband networks -- unlike Thailand, where pretty much no one gets the promised Internet speeds they have subscribed for, particularly for international connections during peak use times here in LOS. If only the international bandwidth capacity here was only half as reliable....

Does that Thai legal form include the specific rights of recourse in the event of non-payment, such a breaking the guarantor's leg, or leaving their lifeless body in a khlong somewhere (depending, of course, on the amount of the unpaid bill)???

Really, they need to make sure they cover all the eventualities....

From The Standard in HK...

Nestle pulled from shelves, Mr Brown coffee tested

Carol Chung

Monday, September 22, 2008

Six brands of Nestle baby milk formula have been pulled from the shelves in Hong Kong by Mannings, Wellcome and ParknShop.

The products were made in Heilongjiang province in northeastern China.

"The products were recalled because one of the brands, Neslac 1+ , was found to contain melamine," a spokeswoman for one of the chains said.

But other mainland-made Nestle products remain on the shelves, she added.

The news comes as Premier Wen Jiabao vowed to head off further food safety incidents.

"What we want to do now is prevent this happening again, not just with milk products, but with all foods," Wen said in a broadcast on state television.

More than 12,800 infants have become sick and four babies have died in the mainland after being fed baby formula laced with the banned industrial chemical melamine.

The removal of Nestle products added to a growing list of recalled mainland-made milk products, which so far include all Yili brand milk products, plastic-bottled Dutch Lady Milk, all Mengniu milk and a Nissin Foods boxed dessert.

The Centre for Food Safety last night said it will test samples of Mr Brown coffee for melamine, as eight products using coffee creamer from Shandong province were found to be tainted.

This came after Taiwanese company King Car announced it has recalled packs of its Mr Brown instant coffee and milk tea containing contaminated milk powder imported from the mainland.

The center also released the latest test results of dairy produ

cts, which showed that of 65 samples, including milk, milk beverage, frozen confections, infant formula, milk powder and raw milk, 64 were free of melamine.

A sample of pure milk was found to contain melamine. The product was Nestle Dairy Farm Pure Milk (a one- liter product for catering use only).

"Based on the low level detected [in the product], normal consumption will not pose major health effects. But it is not advisable for small children to consume the milk product," a center spokesman said. "We have informed the trade of the test results and asked them to stop selling and to recall the product."

Kidney specialist Gabriel Choi Kin urged the government to give free kidney checks to all children in Hong Kong, similar to those for more than 7,000 schoolchildren in Macau who participated in a Yili milk scheme.

"Family doctors cannot refer children with no symptoms to public hospitals. These children can only get checks in the private sector," he said, adding such checks can cost up to HK$2,000.

Choi, a former Hong Kong Medical Association president, said kidney stones can be fatal if the stones are big enough.

Medical sector lawmaker-elect Leung Ka-lau said kidney checks should be extended to all public clinics with daily services and longer service hours. But the Department of Health said it has no plan to offer city-wide checks.

The Legislative Council's food and environmental hygiene deputy chairman, Fred Li Wah-ming, said the government should immediately ban the import of all mainland milk products.

More than 10 anxious parents yesterday went to the nephrology and urology department of Princess Margaret Hospital seeking kidney scans for their children but were turned away as the clinic was closed.

"It's worrying that children without symptoms may be suffering from kidney stones," said a man surnamed Choi, whose five-year-old son drank Yili milk regularly over the past three years.

The Lai Chi Kok hospital was designated to handle all kidney checks for children suspected to have consumed tainted milk or have symptoms.

The arrangement came after a three- year-old girl, who had been taking two to three cups of Yili brand milk every day over the past 15 months, was diagnosed on Saturday with a stone in her left kidney despite showing no previous symptoms. She was later discharged in good condition.

Advisory today from the U.S. Consulate, BKK

September 25, 2008

Over the past several weeks, there have been reports of deaths and illness in China as a result of milk contaminated with melamine. China has historically been a supplier of milk and cream products to Thailand, and on September 22, 2008, rising concern over possibly contaminated milk led the Thai Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue a statement on its website saying that all Chinese dairy imports will be more stringently inspected. A Thai FDA port inspector confirmed to Embassy officials that all current shipments of Chinese dairy products entering Thailand are tested and only released into the market after all test results are conclusive that the products are not contaminated.

We cannot evaluate the safety of all dairy products available in Thailand, but suggest that consumers stay abreast of current events and always look at the product labels for nutritional information, possible allergens, and country of origin if you are concerned about the source of your food.

For more information on this and other food safety issues, please consult the following sources:

http://www.fda.moph.go.th/fdamain.stm

www.who.int/csr/media/faq/QAmelamine/eu/

www.who.int/foodsafety

www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/news/2008/new01889.html

Updated news and information can also be found on www.cnn.com and www.bbc.com.

200K baht well spent, I'd say....

Ignorance is bliss.....

PS - what's a Thai lawyer, pro bono or otherwise, going to be able to contribute on the subject of a wife supposedly being a guarantor on another Thai woman's debt to loan sharks... Did the pro bono guy consult with the pro bono lawyer for the loan sharks???? Give me a break!!!!

In looking at Sunrise's current menu, they show the order of tortilla chips and guacamole being priced at 99 baht... not 69..... Wish it was 69....

Are most people using a standard analog hand-set? I assume the Magic Jack provides the required voltage? And I assume it provides the analog hand-set with "dial-tone"?

Using a standard tone-dial phone with no separate AC connection. I'd assume it would work just fine/the same with a powered phone model.

Can you alternatively use a headphone/mic combination? If so, does the software offer some sort of dial-pad?

Yes to both. The MJ software has a built-in dial pad you can access from your desktop, or just pick up and dial your own phone. The MJ software also allows you to change its setting for use with a headphone/mic combination.

When you dial a number do you use 1 and the area code, or just the 10 digits? Any issues with DTMF tone generation ("press 1 for customer service")?

The tones/responses work fine for me.

How is the voice-mail experience?

The MJ software pad has a voicemail button that shows a light when you have any message waiting. Whenever you get a voicemail, the system sends an email notice to your email address of record. You can access/play voicemail messages either directly from your phone by entering a 4-digit pin number or by clicking the link in the notification email.

A good tidbit to put in everyone's understanding Thailand playbook:

Real Thai monks never beg for money on the street.

Likewise, my Thai friends said these guys around Sukhumvit are Chinese, not Thai....

The other thing I noticed about the guy who came by was he was wearing socks underneath his sandals... which apparently is also faux paux