jfchandler

fyi...went by Bourbon St. last night...and they were not showing any Olympics on their tvs...

so moved over to Larry's Dive, and they had on Super Sports 5 from South Africa (???)

Saw a good women's volleyball match with the Japanese team... But wondered...why were they showing that instead of China vs. USA in women's basketball???

Jim...this is giving me a headache...

I have an SCB exchange booth near where I live...so I'm always passing their display board...which shows their exchange rate for traveler's cheques.... It's been bouncing around 33.3-4-5-6-7 lately....

I haven't actually sat down and compared the rate I'm getting from BKK Bank ATMs with the exchange rate BKK Bank lists daily on their web site. But the net rates I've been getting in real cash from their ATMs have been a bit below the rate shown for travelers checks at the SCB booth.

Maybe the next thing to do...is see how the BKK Bank cash ATM withdrawal rates compared to BKK Bank's posted web site exchange rate...

U.S.A. breaks 100, free corn dogs for everyone! (see "Semi-Pro"). The international game is so different from an NBA game; shorter (40 min. v 48 min), quicker, less defense, fewer fouls, fun to watch. The Malayasian satellite feed had really good U.S. commentators.

Next up, Angola, Tuesday, 12 August 19:00 local Bangkok time.

Lithuania beat Argentina, Croatia beat Autralia.

The U.S. Women's basketball team plays China today at 19:00. The U.S. Women's team is excellent; Gold for them I'd say.

Lom, what place out did you end up going to watch the game???? If it was good, maybe give it a try for the ladies tonight...or Tuesday...if they end up showing those games....

U.S. men v. China was a sure bet to broadcast... But I'm wondering if the women will get equal broadcast treatment...or if the Thai TV will care to show U.S. men v. Angola...

I watched the men at home last night on NBT... Gotta say...for basketball, didn't miss having an English play-by-play at all...

Guys...no commercial (or economic interest) here....

If you follow my TV posts at all, you'll know I'm regularly "reviewing" places to eat and drink here... sometimes good... sometimes bad... just as I see it.

Fact was, we had a great evening there...and nothing bad to say... except...I didn't get a phone number from any of the "drink" ladies...

When I first visited Bangkok I got through quite a few hotels. I stayed at:

- Nana tai manson

- Majestic Suites

- Grace Hotel

- Landmark

- EverRich

- Town Lodge

...errr and some others.

Now Landmark was lovely but way out of the price range. I thought Nana tai mansons was a dump (but who cares, I had a bed), Majestic Suite was nice, if you can save a few extra pennies I thought EverRich was nice (despite a crazy fight outside), didn't like Town Lodge. As for Grace Hotel... I don't know why everyones always so down on the place. My room was decent (far far better than Nana tai manson). Hmm... maybe I was lucky. As for middle eastern people - they don't bother me in the slightest.

Anyways, just my thoughts.

If you're a regular guy, Majectic Suites is the winner among that group. If you've got money to burn, the Landmark is pretty sweet also.... and just a couple blocks away.

No... you can use the NBC video viewer using XP and some (Intel chip based) Mac systems as well, I believe. They recommend installing the MS Silverlight program. But the limiting factor is the feed is only available to those who have a U.S. IP address. Outside of the U.S., they are blocking the feed.

Huggy..my comment wasn't made or intended in any negative manner at all...

To me it's just interesting, how certain U.S. sports have evolved along ethnic lines, as you mentioned using the example of golf. Or, why aren't there more black quarterbacks in the NFL???

As I said, I played basketball all through school, as did my younger brother...by virtue of both of us being tall. And when we played, we mostly played with fellow black teammates...

I'm certainly a victim of the "White Men Can't Jump" syndrome (at least, certainly not like those guys on TV do... hehehehehe.....) As I mentioned, I watched some of the play last night and wondered... WOW... How'd they do that????!!!

To be fair, of course, I didn't see any non Chinese ethnics on the Chinese team either.

"PS - Speaking as a white guy former basketball player, were there any white guys who made it into the game on the USA side???"

Now, now, easy, lets not get into a "race card" slinging match here. It is what it is. Other than Vijay Singh, did you see any black guys on the leaderboard in the PGA Championship? No, lets leave this stuff alone, it's more a societal factor (hoops in inner city playgrounds) then a race matter.

They (USA) literally ran away with the game... outran and outshot the Chinese team...

At one point late in the game, the broadcasters showed a graphic saying the USA had a 12-2 lead over the Chinese in steals...

It certainly wasn't perfect play, but the USA guys actually looked like a TEAM...instead of just a bunch of superstars playing as individuals... That was kind of heartening...after some past years...

Despite some miscues, there was some great ball handling to be seen.... making me remember why basketball is an American sport at heart... Some of those plays...I found myself saying... HOW'd he do THAT????

PS - Speaking as a white guy former basketball player, were there any white guys who made it into the game on the USA side???

On Nut is an OK area at the current far end of the Sukhumvit BTS Skytrain line, though they're in the process of extending it further out toward the Bang Na area...

The prices there are reasonable...it's near the expressway to Pattaya... and there are a Tesco Lotus Superstore and CareFour store right near the BTS On Nut Station.

That said, it's much more a Thai area compared to places around Sukhumvit and Silom. And since the Skytrain stops running at midnight, after that, you're relying on taxis or buses to get from the centers of town out to the On Nut area...

It really depends on what you plan to be doing, and where, on if that location makes sense.

Game on NOW!!!

So...is this the correct understanding...

The VISA site for Aug. 10 shows their U.S. $/Thai baht exchange rate as 33.70 baht to $1.

If VISA is typically taking a 1% fee....that would equate to a cut of about .34 basis points.

Thus the net cash received for ATM withdrawals (assuming no other bank fees are being added in) would be about 33.36.

And that's just what my various ATM withdrawals lately from BKK Bank have been netting, using any variety of VISA network ATM and debit cards....

HSBC, on the other hand, is a different story. I recall someone posting an e-mail message they had received from HSBC here lately... As best as I recall, the HSBC rep was saying they were charging a 3% rate.... 1% going to the network and 2% for HSBC...

If you figure a 3% commission rate would equal about a 1 baht per $ rate cut at the current exchange rate, that about makes sense for the 32.33 rate I received from HSBC -- just about 1 full baht below the corresponding VISA 1% rate.

I checked, and the HSBC Bank (U.S. version) ATM card of theirs that I referenced above in using a BKK Bank ATM (and received quite a low exchange rate for) carries the Cirrus and Maestro logos only on the back side...

I'm a bit perplexed though, because I've also used the same HSBC ATM card at HSBC's BKK branch ATMs in the past, and seemed at the time their rate was competitive... But I don't have any current withdrawals from their HSBC ATMs there to use for comparison.

There have been a few posts on TV re "The Good View" restaurant in Chiang Mai, but not so much re their BKK branch, which is Chao Phraya riverside on Charoen Krung Road near the Krung Thep Bridge/Rama III Road. Went there Sat. night for an extended family dinner, and had a very good and pleasant experience.

Here is the web site for The Good View.

And here is a 3rd party post with various information.

There were numerous nice things about this place...

They have a very broad menu at decent, but not cheap, prices... Fresh seafood, Thai food, a special separate menu (it seems you have to ask for it) for Japanese sushi and sashimi that is served either at a side sushi bar or can be had at your regular table, a fair number of western/European choices on the menu, and a range of Thai deserts on the menu and a refrigerator full of very tasty western style cheesecakes and pies out front that's not on the menu at all.

"The Good View" in this case means dining right at river side... They have a very large and nicely appointed (not rickety) covered patio with many tables looking right out onto the river. My feeling was, it's better in daytime when you can see the comings and goings on the river, whereas at night time, the surrounding area gets pretty dark and it's hard to see much of anything out of the river or on the opposite bank. But it has the makings for a very nice, romantic meal.

You have your choice for dining setting, outside on the patio, or inside in the nicely air conditioned restaurant and bar, where they also have live and often acoustic music, a mix of Thai and western songs... Nicely done, but not so loud (like many other places) to drowned out everything and everyone around. Add to that a broad and attractive menu of drinks, and it makes for a nice night out.

The restaurant's web site include descriptions and photos of their menu items, and maps to the location in both Thai and English. They had plenty of serving staff, and took good care of our table, as well as a trio of mini-skirted beverage ladies (JW, Smirnoff and Singha) adding to the scene.

One intersting addition: as we sat on the riverside patio, one of our party wanted to smoke a cigarette... I'm a non-smoker and don't like it at all... But since we were outdoors, I figured the relatively new Thai smoking regulation wouldn't apply. Nonetheless...within less than 5 seconds of the person in our party lighting up the smoke, one of the restaurant staff appeared to tell him their outdoor patio did not allow smoking, and he'd have to go to a separate area some ways away to have the cigarette... So, to my quiet delight, our outdoor table remained smoke free.

Our bill for a party of 4 adults came to about 1,800 baht, which included 5 entree dishes (whole fish, BBQ mixed seafood in sweet cause, oysters dish, mussels broiled with cheese, and roasted duck), non-alcohol drinks for everyone, and two cheesecake slices and a fresh fruit plate for desert.

On the lighter side, I'd also recommend it as good place for evening drinks and snacks....without going the full dinner route.

See related post....but... no schedule of events by hour....

NBT, formerly Channel 11, seems to be carrying the bulk of the Thai TV coverage...

Has has anyone seen/located a schedule of what hours their coverage will be day-to-day, and even more, which events they're planning to televise hour-to-hour... You'd think it would be online somewhere????

I do wonder about the "added sugar" issue.... and I likewise read the news post here on TV about the Thai study on heavy sugar content in Thai fruit juices and juice blends (without naming any brands).

I stay away from everything that's not labeled 100% juice. I tend to buy Tipco juices, which are labeled as 100% fruit juice or blend of 100% juices. Their kiwi, grape and cranberry blend are pretty good and taste fresh and relatively natural...

However, their 4 or 5 varieties of off the shelf orange juices taste SOOOOOO sweet.... nothing like fresh juice at all... Yet they also are labeled 100% juice.... It really makes me wonder how they do that...and about what an analysis would show on sugar levels????????

Even though it's more expensive, I've taken to buying the refrigerated Nestle brand at Villa and even, when it's sometimes in stock, the Florida's Natural brand, which is NOT from concentrate. The latter, IMHO, is as close to fresh squeezed as you can get.

Most of my U.S. Bank/ATM withdrawals here have posted to my online accounts by the time I finish walking home from the ATM... I have one bank that's an exception, where everything done here seems to show up 3 days later... But for all others, it's virtually instantaneous....

Re exchange rates, I recently did some different withdrawals on the same day with very different results... not sure why... PS - Every time I do a sizeable withdrawal, I do the exchange rate calculation when I get back home, so I'm frequently checking just what rate I ultimately receive for my withdrawals.

On Aug. 5, I used an ATM/VISA debit card from a smaller U.S. bank at a BKK Bank ATM in BKK (no fee surcharge) that netted an exchange rate of 33.49.

On the same day, I used a non-VISA HSBC ATM card at a BKK Bank ATM in BKK (again, no Thai surcharge) that netted a 32.33 rate...

I've always had the feeling somehow the U.S. version of HSBC has pretty bad exchange rates, or are taking out a fee somewhere for ATM withdrawals here... But in my online banking, it only showed a single withdrawal amount... no fees shown there or on my paper ATM receipt.

You might check the Bangkok Baking Co. at the JW Marriott Hotel near Sukhumvit 2... They have a nice bakery section that, from my memory, does include various kinds of chocolate confections. I think I've seen choc truffles there before... but... they're not on my regular shopping list.

Ya, and add to the tally... we saw the NTB coverage on Sat. begin just about 1 pm and finish about 3:30 pm. It also included quite a few men's boxing contests...including one with an American and another with a Thai competitor... Then they had Japan vs. America in women's soccer.... Then after that, we noticed the coverage switched to Channel 3... I think.

Later in the evening, out for dinner, we caught swimming on one of the Thai channels as well... So they do seem to be going beyond just a few sports...although all in Thai narration, of course.

Here is NBC's FAQ on viewing the Olympics online...

PS - It also lists a correction from my earlier post, saying PC users can view Olympics video without installing Silverlight, if they are running XP or Vista and have "a supported version of Internet Explorer" and Windows Media Player installed.

NBC Olympics.com Video FAQ Q: Is it possible to watch the video in full screen?

Users that have Microsoft Silverlight installed will be able to watch the video in Enhanced Mode, which includes a larger size video and the ability to view up to four videos simultaneously.

Q: What is Enhanced Mode?

Enhanced Mode provides an unprecedented way to consume the 3600+ hours of Beijing 2008 Olympics content that will be made available on nbcolympics.com. For more information about the enhanced player, click here: http://www.nbcolympics.com/newscenter/silverlight/index.html

Q: Can I watch Olympics video content on my phone?

Yes, NBC has a complete mobile site at http://mobile.nbcolympics.com. For more information please check out: http://www.nbcolympics.com/mobile.

Q: Can we watch video on nbcolympics.com outside of the United States?

NBC has the right to broadcast Olympic competition video on the internet for the United States & U.S. Territories (excluding Puerto Rico). Users outside of those locations will have access to a limited set of non-event content.

Q: How long is the video content available on the site?

All video content will be available for on-demand viewing until 12/31/2008

Q: What are the minimum web browser requirements for viewing video on nbcolympics.com?

Video is currently supported on the following browsers:

• Internet Explorer 6, 7 for Windows (2003, XP SP2 or greater, and Vista)

• Firefox 1.5, 2, 3 for Windows (2003, XP SP2 or greater, and Vista) and Macintosh (Intel only)

• Safari 2, 3 for Macintosh (Intel only)

Q: What are the minimum hardware requirements for viewing video on nbcolympics.com?

For the best experience, NBC recommends the following minimum hardware and broadband connections:

(using Silverlight):

• Standard Player: 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 with 512 MB RAM or Intel-based Macintosh, 512k broadband connection

• Enhanced Player: 3.2GHz Pentium 4 with 1GB RAM or Intel-based Macintosh, 768k broadband connection

• Live Video Control Room: 3.2GHz Pentium 4 with 1GB RAM or Intel-based Macintosh, 768k broadband connection

Machine and network conditions may vary during playback and affect the end-user experience.

Q: What is Microsoft Silverlight?

Silverlight is a lightweight, cross-platform web browser plug-in from Microsoft that enables rich multimedia experiences like the Enhanced Mode player on nbcolympics.com. You can learn more about Microsoft Silverlight at http://silverlight.net.

Q: Is Microsoft Silverlight required to watch video on nbcolympics.com?

Windows XP, 2003, and Vista users will be able to watch all video content without installing Silverlight if they are using a supported version of Internet Explorer and have Windows Media Player installed.

The enhanced player experience is only available through Microsoft Silverlight. It includes a larger-size video and the ability to watch up to four simultaneous live events at once. For more information about the enhanced player, click here: http://www.nbcolympics.com/newscenter/silverlight/index.html

Q: Silverlight 2 is a “beta” product. Is it supported?

Yes, Microsoft Silverlight 2 Beta 2 is a fully supported product from Microsoft.

Q: What version of Mac OS X do I need to have installed?

Silverlight is supported on Intel-based computers running Mac OS X 10.4.8+ “Tiger” and 10.5+ “Leopard”. Silverlight 2 is not supported on PowerPC-based machines.

Q: I have Silverlight 1 installed on my machine. Do I need to upgrade?

Yes. The NBC Olympics video player uses new features only available in Silverlight 2 beta 2. Silverlight is a small download and installs quickly. Silverlight 2 is backwards-compatible with Silverlight 1.

Q: I have run the Silverlight installation program several times but the website is asking me to install again.

Some users will not be able to upgrade Silverlight due to their OS settings. If you are seeing this issue then you should follow these steps:

1. Uninstall Silverlight as described by this Silverlight support page: http://support.microsoft.com/silverlight#tab3

2. Restart your computer

3. Visit http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/index.html

4. Click on any of the videos

5. When prompted, install Silverlight again

6. When installation is complete, restart your browser

7. Return to http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/index.html

Q: Why do I need to restart my browser after installing Silverlight?

Some users will be prompted to restart their browsers if they are upgrading from a previous version of Silverlight. In most cases, users will not have to restart their web browsers after installing Silverlight.

Q: How do I uninstall Microsoft Silverlight?

See the Silverlight support page at http://support.microsoft.com/silverlight#tab3

Q: I can view on-demand video content, but not the live video. I am using the Silverlight player.

The stream may be blocked by a network proxy that requires user authentication. Microsoft has confirmed that this is not currently supported in Silverlight 2.

Q: How do I contact NBC about my experience on nbcolympics.com?

Please submit your feedback to [email protected]

OK...so...I went to the NBC Olympics web site today to see what could be accomplished here from LOS in terms of video streaming.... For me, the answer thus far, is not much....

The site has a registration and log-in feature, which involves entering a U.S. address and zip code and other personal information... But that process doesn't appear particularly related to gaining the right to view online videos...

To access video on the site, it also requires the installation, if your PC doesn't already have it, of Microsoft's Silverlight software. The NBC site includes a link to this free plug-in download.

Whether trying under my NBC Olympics registered ID or without it, I several times got an error message indicating the Olympics video streaming content was only available to U.S. residents.

When doing some things to obtain a U.S. IP address, one could access the video... But at least during the daytime on a True 2 mbs DLS connection in Bangkok, it ran very choppily and required constant rebuffering every few seconds.... Hardly a satisfying viewing experience.

PS - The viewing didn't work at all using Mozilla Firefox 3....perhaps because the NBC video player is Silverlight based.... It did work marginally with Internet Explorer 7... again... assuming you can get past the U.S. IP issue and have a fast enough connection here...

Mate when my wife walks down the street here in Sydney she turns heads. As I dont go out with ugly girls.

This multi millionaire tries to pick up my wife (my wifes previous employer) He knows me and even wanted to take us both out for dinner and offered her a promotion after only working there for a few weeks, we were abit suspicous and then my wife tell me a week later that he asked her to dump me and be with him.

I completely snapped as he was nice to my face but was only after one thing.

Roid rage kicked in and I went down there one day after work and they had to call security on me. took 3 of the bastards to restain me

I think I saw that story in a U.S. movie a few years ago... with Michael Douglass, Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson.... But...that was just a movie....

In real life, sounds like someone here has a bit of a behavioral problem....

I asked this before...and got no answer.... so I'll try again now...

If folks believe an outlet for the Olympic broadcasts in Thailand is the Supersports network, what venues (bars/pubs/restaurants, etc...) in the BKK are known to carry this service???

Or.... more broadly, has anyone seen any advertising about any such businesses promoting their carrying some kind of full Olympics coverage... as a means of drawing customers???

Yes...you missed something...entirely...

This discussion is about SCB's newly imposed 20 baht per transaction fee for using any non-Thai ATM cards in their (SCB) ATM machines.

Is there something wrong with R&B as dancing music at a late night night club??? Were you looking for polkas???