Zolt

Anyone else forecast tourism to Koh Phanghan dwindling to almost nothing in the next few months? Not that the drugs-free part is a bad idea, I'd be wary of doing drugs anywhere in Thailand anyway, but didn't they try the "family oriented" thing with Pattaya too?

The place is in the middle of nowhere, and the accomodation, while enjoyable for backpackers, is not the kind of place I'd want to take my wife & kids to. There's plenty of better, easier to reach options, and it's not like they were bursting full at the moment.

R.I.P Phangan

Sondhi - Thaksin 2-2, tie

I'm glad for this rare show of common sense. "National security threat" indeed...

Pratunam Indra has lots of shops for wholesale in the quantities you want. My girlfriend uses them for sale in japan I can ask her which shops exactly.

You can also give them a sample or t-shirt design and they'll replicate it by the hundred.

P.S.: There's a big sales on shirts right now, but they're all heavily used and come only in the color red.

I have lived in quite a few places before, and I have to say that for cheap / quality life and still good work opportunities, there are not many places that beat Bangkok. Perhaps Taipei but it feels a bit more provincial. I still miss my life in Japan though.

To give the noise pollution a miss, live in the suburbs, or on a very high floor near the BTS. Really Bangkok would be heaven if they'd just improve the transport system.

Protests and political instability are one thing, but I've lived in France and Korea before, and they know something about country-paralyzing public service strikes and million-people protests. Thailand is rather amusing by comparison, plus the airport blockade was a very good chance to miss an annoying meeting and have a fun experience making my way back via Laos.

The problem is indeed if and when the "bottom" will come. As for the stock and commodities market, I'm not too worried, even if the bottom is not hit yet, it's close enough that investments now will generate profit in the long term. In the real estate market I think prices haven't even begun to seriously fall. I'm fairly new in Thailand and don't know so well about the situation here - but in other countries like South Korea, real estate is still staying up at over-inflated prices, even through the rest of the economy has gone through the whole crash thing already. There is a considerable lag involved.

In 90's japan, when the whole financial bubble unraveled, land and housing prices took a small hit at first, but reaching an actual bottom and resuming normal cycle from there took over 10 years of very very slow deflation. Then again, the japanese government was still well organized, and throwing everything it had to stop the deflation. Instead they just diluted and delayed it and it took years to get out of that loop.

In Thailand, with the government's inepty - or sometimes even the absence of a government, one can safely venture than it's efforts to support the market will be at the very least half-assed and disorganized. Combine that with the huge oversupply and the credit crunch and we *might* see a sharper drop on the market, but in my opinion, we'll need a lot of 97' style abandoned projects before developer and land sellers take the cue and slash their prices.

OK thanks, I rarely go up there but I'll give it a try.

Does anyone know where in Bangkok I could sell or even give away my old books, mostly paperbacks in english.

I've got at least 20 kilos of them to get rid of. Mostly cheap sci-fi/fantasy novels.

I noticed a few used book stands along sukhumvit but not sure if they buy too, and if they do, I'm not sure what they'd do if I showed up with more than their whole inventory.

Just plain throwing them away is against my religion.

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Not sure if this should go here, but it's not really a classified either.

Subject? Didn't they abolish the monarchy in Laos when the commies took over?

I don't know about the marriage, but with the new regulations for overland entries her tourist visa might become 15days only.

Great! Count me in with 1 companion.

Good verdict in my opinion. Now he can return to thailand, serve his time and all that absurdity will be over.

As was stated, his wife did pay for the land 700mn bahts, which hardly qualifies as cheap, she was the highest bidder, and there is now evidence that Thaksin actually used his influence for her to get a cheaper price. So nobody can honestly say the state lost money on that deal. It's just that he wasn't within a law *which didn't exist at that time!*

Although there's a bit more money involved overall, it is (arguably) of about the same magnitude as Samak hosting a cooking show.

After all this picturing him as the Thai version of Hitler, and after the Junta drafting new laws just to get him behind bar, it's interesting that this is the best they could do. *Hint* have a look at the accounts of any army general in the 2006-2007 period, and I'm sure there some very jazzy things to be found, what with appointing themselves on the board of most public companies and so on..

I don't consider myself a thailand lover, but apart for the national park thing I haven't found any.

There's a 10x difference in income between the average thai and the average tourist, so it does not shock me all that much.

What's surprising is that they don't seem to overcharge in the health care sector, which maybe they should.

Explanation: Medical tourism is a good thing, but when it gets to the point that it leaves only the second grade medical practitioners to attend the country's population, it has to be regulated a bit. Plus what public health care plan couldn't use some extra money?

Hi,

Nice to know there's so many people interested in japanese here. I'm planning to go for 1-kyu in december, so I'm going to try and get that application form tomorrow (I hope the guys speak english or japanese). See you on dec 7!

Erikhs, I don't know about schools but I know quite a few japanese students in bangkok who'd be interested in language exchange.

(else you can just post an ad at Fuji supaa).

A few things to know about the JLPT

- There's a huge gap between level 3 and 2. 4 is basically no use at all, 3 is the minimum required by japanese companies in thailand.

- To have any hope of landing a good job in Japan (ie: same level as you've got at home), lvl 2 is barely enough. Level 1 is much harder, but is a huge boost on a resume.

- To get in a reputable japanese uni, you also need level 1.

I passed level 2 after a 6-month intensive study course (was about lvl 4 when I started), chinese students often get level 1 in as much time because they know kanji.

Saw the smoke from my place on Monday - I was actually awakened by the fire truck sounding frantically to make way through the morning traffic just down from my window. I hope some other cars were able to get there, because there's no way that truck could have made it through the jam up to sathorn in less than 40, 50 minutes.

It's funny my girlfriend asked me to turn on the TV to see if the fire was in the news already. I told her there's no way just a small fire would make the news, turns out it eventually did...

It looks like the Myanmar junta is following the little North Korean (or is that Iranian) book on how to apparently comply with UN demands while taking to steps back and delaying them by every means possible.

Just to get this thread back on OT:

If 5000 dead in the tsunami did not lastingly harm tourism in thailand, I strongly doubt a string of fait divers will either. We can see stuff just as scary or worse on the daily headlines of most so-called "first world" countries.

However I do agree that we as expats, and the thai authorities themselves should make every possible effort to help both thai and farang women be safe in every situation while wearing outfits as skimpy as they like to. Therein lies the road to real civilization.

Hi on the Thai dept of livestock notes it says animals are subject to at least 30 days quarantine at approved premises, did anyone have to leave there cat in quarantine at the airport or can you take your cat straight home after the flight?

Hi Dave,

When you go through the paperwork at Suvarnabhumi, they will normally give you a form authorizing you to do the quarantine at your home. That's what they did for me last week.

Update on bringing cat from japan:

The animal quarantine office was a bit hard to find in Kansai airport, good thing I booked a hotel on place for the night and we woke up early. It's in an administrative building outside the main airport building, on the right. 2nd floor. Staff was very nice and helped us make sense out of the vaccination certificates we had brought. Procedure for export was quite simple, but they also spent a lot of time explaining us the return procedure, when and if we come back to japan. Apparently that can take over 6 months, and microchip is mandatory.

Import license from Department of Animal Health was NOT required on the japanese side: we simply explained it would be done on arrival.

With Thai airways everything went fine, you just need to let them know 1 week in advance. Fee for extra luggage was 3000 yen per kg so 15 000 total. They have a strict limit on the size of the crate, but ours fit just fine. They gave us a kind of boarding pass for the cat, which we had to show at security check, and let us take the cat in cabin, under our seat (I don't think they have any special compartiment). Needless to say we were quite an attraction during boarding. Lots of kids on that flight.

Arrival a suvarnabhumi, a bit tired but OK, very very long walk to the immigration, but fortunately not too crowded. Proceeded to get our bags then to the animal quarantine office. They simply took the health certificate from the quarantine office in japan, had us fill a form with our name & address, and asked for 100 bahts. Then they spent the next 10 minutes doing paperwork, and issued us with:

- Import certificate

- 1 copy for customs

- Authorization to do the quarantine at home

- receipt for 100 bahts.

At customs we simply handed the certificate copy and were let through without even stopping.

I wish I had taken some pictures on that trip but I really had other things on my mind.

Greetings,

I'm moving from Japan to Thailand, and I'll be bringing my cat with me.

After checking with pet carriers, airways and animal quarantine, it seems bringing my cat with me on board will be the simplest way.

- Thai airways informed me I just had to pay the extra luggage price per kg for my cat and his cage, so about 15 000 yen for 5 kg

- Quarantine office as Suvarnabhumi informed me that no procedure was necessary before entry, and all I needed was the health certificate from japan quarantine, they even showed me an example of the form needed.

- Check with quarantine office in Kansai Airport, no special documentation is required, but to speed up the procedure (I fly a morning flight) they recommended that I do a basic health check in a japanese vet clinic (which I have). Rabies vaccination not mandatory for cats but strongly recommended from both sides. Got it done 1 month ago too.

I fly from Japan on next monday, so I'll keep you updated.　The guy I saw at suvarnabhumi quarantine station was quite friendly and helpful, but spoke no english whatsoever.