AyG

Thongin Phasompheut

Niphon Phasompheut

Considering the Royal Thai system, ue is more correct than eu here. (Compare with, for example, Don Mueang.)

Cremation is traditionally associated with cleansing of wrong doings. A stillborn child has not accumulated any in this life, so doesn't need to be cremated.

Occasionally monks who have achieved enlightenment will also not be cremated for the same reason.

I suspect this understanding came from India with Brahmanism.

Thong-in Phasomphuech (or Phasomphuet)

Niphon Phasomphuech

Thong-in means "Gold of Intra", Intra being a Hindu deity. Niphon means "to write". The family name is something like "mixed vegetation".

One aspect of this that hasn't been touched in the discussion so far is that Thai people eat Thai food at home (duh!). They're not going to go out to eat something they can cook themselves. If you look at the chain restaurants popular with the middle classes, you find (very pseudo-) Japanese and Korean places are probably the most popular, along with junk American fast food. There simply isn't the market here to sustain more refined versions of Thai cuisine outside the major tourist areas - and even then, the food will be mostly "adjusted" for the foreign palate.

You could try Nationwide BS or Metro Bank.

I suspect that Metro Bank's financial situation is more precarious than that of the Coop. It's lost more than £100m in the first three years of operation. (http://news.sky.com/story/1085695/exclusive-metro-bank-losses-pass-100m-mark). Nationwide, however, would be my first choice. In my opinion it beats the Coop because you can send them on-line messages - a major deficiency with the Coop offering. The Coop doesn't even seem to have an email address for account queries.

(1) Bangkok Bank London provides commercial banking services, not personal ones. See http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/InternationalNetwork/InternationalBranches/Pages/BranchinUK.aspx

(2) The Coop Bank is saying that it's in a financially OK position will not need to resort to borrowing from the government. It's most unlikely to be taken over.

Your arrangement sounds bizarre. If I've got it right, you lent money to someone to buy a piece of land. That person is paying you mortgage payments - effectively paying off the loan. But you're living on the land, and now want to secure the right to use it for the foreseeable future - even if the landowner dies. Is that correct?

What's in it for the land owner. Are the mortgage payments ridiculously small that they don't matter? Are you giving him/her the money to make the mortgage payments? Otherwise why would the land owner pay for land he won't have use for (potentially) many years?

In short, no.

The land has a certain value without a usufruct, and a lower value with a usufruct. The company which issued the mortgage has the land as security in event that the mortgage payment run into arrears. It would not agree to a reduction in the value of its security.

The corpse of the Elite Card still twitches.

According to the-newspaper-that-dare-not-speak-its-name, TPC (the company now behind the card) plans on selling at least 200 cards co-branded with a property developer (but which one not decided yet) in the next six months. Membership for one of the co-branded cards will be a mere 1,000,000 Baht (down from the regular 2 million Baht fee) with a 20,000 Baht annual fee. To get one of these prized cards you'll need to invest in a Thai property, and in return will get a five year visa and (unspecified) airport services.

Sounds to me like an irresistible offer. I'm checking down the back of the sofa as I type to see if I can find the money.

Watch out for the exciting advertising campaign promised to start on the 30th.

Have a look at http://postcardsfromthailand.com/2013/05/not-much-to-see-here/

It's a report of a recent visit to Macau.

Talcum is only used for polished rice. Thai rice is not polished, so no.

Japanese rice, for example, is polished (you can tell by the shiny appearance). However, they stopped using talc some time ago and now use cornflour to polish it.

Just point him at *Direct link edited out*

Lots of gay-owned, gay-friendly and just gay hotels listed there, as well as a wide range of other resources.

If this is http://k9bangkok.com/dog-boarding/ then the ill-informed slurs are grossly unfair.

This outfit was founded by two expats, including Patrick, whom I've met, who is both charming and a committed dog lover. There's more about his impressive background at http://k9bangkok.com/about-us/.

My dog, Whisky, stayed with them for 10 days last month and I was very happy with the experience (apart from a few problems finding where I live to pick Whisky up).

I recommend K9 Bangkok very highly and will undoubtedly use them again.

Good to see the concert isn't actually 200 years long - though it may well feel like it.

As someone* once said "Wagner's music has some wonderful moments - and some terrible quarters of an hour"

* Quote variously attributed to Sir Thomas Beecham, George Bernard Shaw, Rossini et al.

Excellent. Just what the airport needs: more space for King Power outlets.

Pardon my ignorance, but I'm curious about the phrase "early Aramaic-based written versions of the Prakrit". I thought that only one of the edicts was in Aramaic, and it was accompanied by a Greek translation, so (presumably) easily understood. Why the importance of "code-breaking"? What am I missing?

Thanks.

There is no one "best" way to acquire a second language. Some people find it easiest to acquire the language through the written word, others through hearing it.

The Pimsleur approach has the merit of getting you to focus on the sound of the language without the distraction of the written word and, at least theoretically, should lead to better pronunciation. It's also said that since this is how babies learn it's more "natural" and so superior. (A very dubious claim in my opinion.) One real positive is that it gets you to a point where you can interact with native speakers much faster than if you start with learning to read/write. (Learning to read fluently takes many months of study.)

Anyway, when I was a schoolboy, for the first year I was taught French it was all listening and speaking - no writing at all. Similar to the Pimsleur approach. I made very little progress since I'm strongly a visual learner. Things improved dramatically in the second year when the classes included reading and writing.

Think about your learning style and just do whatever you feel works best for you.

In short: no chance. Thai people just don't like the meat. There has been at least one turkey raising business here that went bust. The only turkey available is expensive, imported frozen turkeys in upmarket supermarkets and at Christmas/Thanksgiving in posh hotel restaurants.

The Thai word for Turkey is ไก่งวง - kày ŋuaŋ.

Once the European Court of Human Rights decided that the purpose of the national insurance contributions once makes whilst working in the UK was to provide for a pension for people living in the UK, and so threw out the appeal against the government's refusal to increase pensions in line with inflation for expats living in certain countries (including Thailand), then this was the obvious next step, based upon the same logic. It doesn't stop it being incredibly unfair; I paid my contributions my entire working life, yet am not going to get what I paid for because I live in Thailand.

If they're centipedes they would well be harmful. Look closely at the legs. If there are 2 legs on each side of each body segment they are millipedes and are harmless. If it's 1 leg on each side they are centipedes and may give a very painful sting, so best avoided.

It's a lot cheaper and potentially quicker to get a new British passport in the UK than it is from Thailand, so I wondering whether it was possible to get one's extension of stay and re-entry permit transferred to a new passport at a Thai embassy or Consulate outside Thailand?

Or is that even necessary? Can one re-enter Thailand showing both old and new passports and using the re-entry permit in the old passport, then get the extension of stay transferred at one's local Immigration office?

If you have no Thai income during a tax year you are not required to submit a tax return. (In fact, the on-line system won't allow you to enter a nil return, and if you do so, there's a pop-up saying you don't need to submit a return.

If you have interest from a Thai bank account it will have been taxed at 15%. You can reclaim this by submitting a tax return - though it may not be worth the trouble if the amount is small.