teacherofwoe

I usually park in the airport car park and walk down to immigration. It saves a lot of hassle and costs between B10 & B20 depending what your doing.

I sent an e-mail to the company in question. They replied by stating that they've not had a complaint in six years. I've only heard of them for about a year through advertisements on this site. They suggested that I bought a curry from one of their competitors and I had made a mistake. I sent them a reply that I am certain that the curry I purchased was theirs and reiterated to them why I am dissatisfied. I am still awaiting their response.

Sounds like a production issue more than anything else.

So the logical thing to do is contact the vendor, and let him deal with it.

Huffing and puffing on an online forum is not too productive.

Huffing and puffing or bringing awareness? I'll take your pearl of wisdom on board and contact XXXXXXX XXX for what it's worth and post their response.

Struggling for a good curry in Thailand,OP should get out more me thinks.

I usually make my own, thanks. I bought a few frozen items for the odd time when the wife takes the kids out.

Hey Guys, we ended up taking the mini-van to vienteine, booked the ticket through Chinda house, 1600 baht return, the trip to Nongkhai was great, the driver stopped a couple of times at the 7-11 and was about an 11 hour trip to NongKhai, we switched buses 2 or 3 times before getting a tuk-tuk to the consulate, arrived there about 9.00am, it was empty, filled out the form, handed it in and then found out that they would be closed until Tuesday (Buddha day)

My ticket, I could not change the date but the missus called chinda house, spoke with the woman and agreed to pick us up on Tues evening at no extra cost, I thought to my self "this is a great little company, nice bus ride including transfer over the border, they'll even change my departure date"

Then came the ride back to CM, everything was going smooth until we got picked up by the mini-van in NongKhai, The driver was doing 120km along the mountain roads and taking bends on like schumacher, I swear that van was being pushed to its limit, thank god the roads were dry, at one stage we ran over something, possibly a traffic cone, everyone was tense, my friend actually shouted "hey hey" at the driver, I was pissed myself and said to him in Thai "slow down, we have time" and my friend wants to use the bathroom at the 7-11"

We had been about 5-6 hours in the van and had passed maybe 10 seven-elevens but for some reason this guy decides to pull up outside an outhouse, there was a 7/11 a km back on the other side of the road but I guess it was too much trouble to pull in there.

The icing on the cake was from Lamphun into town he drove at 50km an hour, the whole highway we just crawled along at 50km, (I was looking at the speedometer) it must have taken us 2 hours just to get home from lampang alone, I thought it odd so turned to my friend and asked what he thought? He looked at me and said "because he's an a__hole"

When we got into CM and parked the spanish guy sitting in front of us, grabbed his bag, shouted some obscenities at the driver and we all went on our separate ways.

Next time I'll catch a plane...

Regards.

Someone told me that if you take a car to Laos you get charged about B1,000 per day. Can you verify this? Thanks.

I tried a curry from <removed> claiming to be authentic. It had both an <reference removed> pictured on the packaging although I'm not sure why; I have never had anything like this before in India, the U.K., Thailand or anywhere else on Earth. A curry smells like a curry. This didn't. A curry has thick sauce. This was watery and I mean watery. It was clear. I could see all of the four small pieces of meat, the three small cubes of potato, the chillies and the onions through the "sauce". A curry tastes like a curry. This tasted like someone got some chillies, onion and water, then added some meat and potato and then fried it. There was absolutely no curry in it! Words fail me on how to really describe how bad this was. Shocking, horrendous, diabolical and God awful just don't seem to do it justice. I could understand it if it were just a really bad Thai effort but I believe that the manufacturer is from the U.K. So, this was and is the first and last time I buy a product from <name removed>

look at the hats being worn by the people on the stand. if someone were to throw one like a frisbee...

I have read a post which says that South Africans are not NES now, and they have to take an English proficiency test if they wish to teach. How does the MOE define a NES? There is a teacher I know who was born in a non-English speaking country in Asia who then grew up in a non-English speaking country in Europe which gave him his first language. Then, he learned the language of his birth country. He finally moved to the U.S. as an adult where he learned English as his third language. He holds a U.S. passport and is working in the position of NES teacher. His accent is not NES, he speaks to his students in pigeon English, his spelling is awful and his grammar is even worse. If he had to take an English proficiency test, I think he would probably fail. Does holding a U.S. passport define him as a NES or has he got his teaching position under false pretenses?

Magic the Gathering. Always looking for new players in CM.

I need to remove my air con to take to a new house. Has anyone had experience doing this? Is it a diy job? I understand that their is a coolant liquid inside. Does it need to be done by a professional or can I do it without the liquid leaking? If I need a pro, does anyone know of someone in Hang Dong? Thanks.

I see Thais riding their motorcycle wearing only shorts at least twice a week. I've seen them wave to police friends, go into shops, and eat in restaurants. I can't say that i've seen them driving due to tinted windows. I suggest two peanut shells and a length of string: hey presto, your driving bikini.

Yes, I took my father there and he let one off right in front of my face.

About restaurants and coffee shops: I aviod CM city centre as much as possible so I can't really help you there. I live in Hang Dong/San Pa Tong and usually eat out there or in Lamphun.

I don't know about strawbeery farms, but if you are planning on going to the hot springs again then check out the Sleepin Buddha cave. If you're going to the springs from CM it's on the left about ten minutes before. You'll need to look out for the signpost. The entrance to the caves is very small and you have to crawl a little bit, but once inside it's huge with several chambers.

Thanx alot wow interesting i will have to crawl i will make sure that i wont fart or person front of me dont fart it happened to me before been to many caves in thailand but wot am afraid the most is...snake or gecko-_- cant wait to go there! btw where in CM are u? how about restaurant or coffee shop? any suggestion?

Kit

I don't know about strawbeery farms, but if you are planning on going to the hot springs again then check out the Sleepin Buddha cave. If you're going to the springs from CM it's on the left about ten minutes before. You'll need to look out for the signpost. The entrance to the caves is very small and you have to crawl a little bit, but once inside it's huge with several chambers.

Firstly, I am not a disgruntled employee, but a parent. Second, all of the information in my original post came from current and ex employees. There are plenty of reliable witnesses, Thai and foreign, who can and would corroborate everything mentioned above. As with the teacher who has victimized children, I didn't mention anything about her doing violence. After hearing everything about the school from the inside, I decided not to re enroll my children. When I asked my children about the school they of course said they like it there because they can play. I think that I'm more inclined to heed the the teachers than the opinion of my young children. Taking the time to introduce myself to the teachers and get to know them outside or school was worthwhile.

Finally, I have a number for the person who made the wheels for my friend's friend's dog:

What is the deposit amount? I got UBC about eight years ago and I'm sure I paid something like B12,000 for deposit and installation. Unfortunately, I no longer have the original receipt. My wife called them last year and they said the deposit was B4,000 which has put me off cancelling.

I have the original receipt, but didn't need to show it. It's all on their computer, they volunteered the info about my deposit without me mentioning it.

So what's the figure, please?

I lived in Canada for 7 years and could never get used to AW Rootbeer, to me it tastes like some kind of mouthwash.

That probably has something to do with usually drinking warm beer.

You must have us confused with Brits. Being a Canuck I know many and no self respecting Candian drinks warm beer. If you do, or offer warm beer to someone, it is usually met with 'What are you, a Brit?"

And a Canuck would know good beer from bad?

Larger is served cold in England, Germany, Austria, Belgium, etc. Bitter and ale (real beer for real men) is served at room temperature.

I cancel my UBC a couple of years ago, just keeping the free channels for my wife. Just download a bunch of HD telefilms and the wonderful BBC documentaries.

I was on vacation in Bali and I saw the local (Indovision-Indosat I don't recall) and I was impressed from the number of the available channels (many more and better than UBC) and the quality of the interface and the signal.

Sad they are loosing customers month by month (maybe only farangs?)

I want to keep the free Thai channels for my wife too. True told here that I must cancel first then resubscribe under her name to get Freeview. I smell a rat.

What is the deposit amount? I got UBC about eight years ago and I'm sure I paid something like B12,000 for deposit and installation. Unfortunately, I no longer have the original receipt. My wife called them last year and they said the deposit was B4,000 which has put me off cancelling.

I too am dismayed at the quality of programmes shown on True/ UBC. I will soon be cancelling and then re subscribing under the wife's name for Freeview rather than pay B500 for the Knowledge package. All of the series and movies they have I can download for free anyway. The Freeview will allow the wife to watch Thai terrestrial channels in good quality. I can download for free better than they provide.

Nandachart Pre-School and Grade School is probably the worst place to send a child. None of the Native English Speaking staff have university degrees or any other training at the Hang Dong campus and very few of the Thai teachers are qualified either. They accept children with special needs, such as autism and ADD, and then place them in a class with the other students. There is no curriculum in place. No real lessons are taught; simply occupying the children is the main focus. The management doesn't seem to have any knowledge about running the school except to gather fees. Every few weeks or so, they try to come up with a new methodology to teach the children but little thought and no expertize goes into it. Trial and error seem to be their approach. The lunches provided are sub-standard and contain MSG to reduce costs. Children are allowed to run amok as there is absolutely no discipline or rules of conduct at the school. Many students are allowed to wander the campus unsupervised rather than attend classes. Some of the Thai kindergarten teachers have been known to victimize some of the children, even as young as two years old. The turn around of staff is in the order of six per semester. Need I go on? I wouldn't send my children there if you paid me (any amount).

My friend's neighbour's dog has doggy wheels. When their neighbour gets home they will ask where she got them.

For God's sake don't send your child to Nandachart Pre-School.

I play. No cards or anything here though. I haven't really played since the mid 90's though, lol.

Although I recently got back on MTGO and have been fooling around a bit on that.

I'm guessing you can't buy cards here. How to you play? Proxies?

I bought my cards here about four years ago through a Thai guy that had a store in town. He downsized to a stall which he eventually closed too and I lost his phone number when my phone was stolen. My friend is a newcomer to the game and he has been ordering from the U.K. and U.S.

The game has changed quite a bit since the 90's. If you are interested in getting back into it you're welcome to meet with us.