msg362

The ever-present, ever-strong, ThaiVisa anti-religion bigots out in full-force again!

These threads are so pitiful, old and overdone.

I don't understand why being anti religious is bigotry Please explain.

Christians have been coming to Thailand for hundreds of years. It is nothing new. Sharing one's faith is integreal to all faiths. And since all religions are accepted in this country it is not arrogant. It would be arrogant for them to come to one's house and not leave or keep coming back once you tell them that you are not interested. There are many Thai Christians and many become christians all the time. What is wrong with that if it makes them happy?

There are so many Christian schools in Thailand that give good education and also share their fath. I wouldn't say that it is converting but mandatory prayer is common at many of these schools. They all learn some Christian idealogy.

"The difference is that Buddhist's DON'T go around trying to convert people who just want to be left alone in peace in their dwelling place! for them to come to a Buddhist country and try and 'convert' is bloody arrogant."

Perhaps most other religions might not go door to door but they do spread their message. I saw the Dali Lama do the same thing in Washington DC.

Just remember the bottom line is that they have faith in something. That faith tells them to help others. One way to help others is to have them have faith too.

It is not unique to Christianity. The majority of people follow a relgion or belief because they are born to it.

Though I agree with most posters and find them annoying and I don't like anyone preaching their faith. To me it is a private thing that I do not discuss. I still don't find it arrogant or wrong for missionaries to do what they feel is necessary.

I think we should start an Atheist door to door campaign! We should all wear white shirts ,ties and black trousers to confuse the morons out there! Let's preach humanity, without the rest of the stuff.

Motorists will be encouraged to wear helmets, fasten seat belts, to drive within the speed limit, to drive only with a license, and not to drink and drive.

This seems to be the best advice the minstry can offer! How many car drivers have you seen wearing helmets?

If you look at the information in the website, you'll see that there are 3 entrances, 2 on the Mahidol road and one on the ring road, should be OK

Many thanks Gonzo,

got to Makro Hang dong at 8.15 this morning. Only one pallet of coke zero and that was 3/4 gone! I helped by taking my ( unfair) share.

I would guess it will all be gone by lunchtime today ( Sunday)

Thanks again

Not sure but I think I saw it in IT City in Pantip a few days ago. Don't shout if I was wrong!!!

I had root canal treatment at Chiang Mai Dental Clinic-on the corner of canal road and the road leading from suan dok hospital( Suthep road) . No pain at all! local injection, lots of asking' does it hurt? to which I replied 'no' The dentists come from the dental school. The owner- Dr Thongard is the Dean I believe. Cheaper too than Grace- the most well known

highly recommended

The receptionists grasp of English leaves a little to be desired, but don't let that put you off, all the dentists speak excellent English

Phone 053 277405

8/1 Moo 10 Suthep road.

I wouldn't recommend taking the time to read the thread. That was kind of depressing.

I agree I was getting depressed!

Tesco Lotus appears to have plenty of Coke zero

Which Tesco ,where?

I started a thread some days ago, look up 'why no Coke Zero in CM'

I put mine in an oven at 50oC for about 2 hours, worked with one that I dropped into a drain, but the one I put through a wash cycle failed miserably

1 Got married and happy

2 Learnt to make and edit videos and that keeps me busy

3 Made lots of new friends

4 See the world differently

5 Learnt to smile more

6 Learnt to be more tolerant

7 Found that things could be done tomorrow and that the world would not come to an end

8 Realised that the sun shone in November, unlike Scotland

This is Thailand, why do you want to learn to ride a motorbike? just get on it!!

(THIS IS A BAD ATTEMPT AT A JOKE!!)

I'll swap you some tonic water here in Chiang Mai for Coke Zero.

It's all gone crazy

Come on folks, It's difficult to get many Thais to think very far ahead, just look at the planning to avoid the floods! ( what planning?)

Not all Thais of course, but the further from a city you are the shorter the 'thinking ahead' seems to be. I may be wrong.

Beware, I have purchased 6 items from e Bay USA, 1 each from the UK & Australia - all electronic items, Yes costly and all have evaporated - been lost - not shown up or in plain speak - been Stolen ! I started a thread on the subject - a number of replies were posted with the same results, this suggests caution. I now only buy items visitors can bring in person.

My experience is different. Ebay items have always arrived ,usually within a week to 10 days . They have been sent registered/EMS, mostly from the UK and China. Some Ebay sellers will mark things as 'gifts' and reduce the declared price. This may reduce the chance of theft or it might be that where I live i'm just lucky. Normally duty is just a few baht. ( the most was about 300 Baht on an item costing £450 but declared much less by the Ebay seller, it came as a pleasant surprise)

Using UPS from the States is also reliable and fast and of course can be tracked.( photo equipment) but the duty on those was around about 13%

On the other hand birthday/Christmas cards sometimes fail to appear, I suspect someone thinks there is cash inside.

Taxi would be in the region of 3000 Baht from central BKK to the ferry in Laem Ngop (the place where you get the ferry to Koh Chang).

Thanks

Asked a friend today who used to work for Coke about this. Coke and Pepsi both have factory flood and supply chain issues. It's floods folks, it's all messed up. And there's also an assumption that people are afraid of water and drinking more soda and things in cans. I guess an X drop in production with a Z increase in consumption can only make things worse. Today at work it was decided that the big bottles of water are now really just flood water. No one will drink. There you go.

by the way I am addicted to Coke Light. I don't want help, I'm happy the way I am. Just give me my Coke Light. Please do not try to grab a can off the shelf in front of me. I'm addicted and dangerous. I found two cans in an ice chest at a park and counted the entire day a success. I buy every can I see. Or is that; every can I can see?

Word on the street this should be better someday.

Where are you? if in CM 'Butter is Better ' had some Coke light in their cafe on Chang Klang road

From what I have been able to find out regarding the unavailability of Coke Zero, it has mainly to do with the flooding at Thai Pure Drinks Rangsit Klong 13 plant. Essentially this is the only plant that bottles Coke Zero for Thai Pure Drinks. They have another plant capable of bottling the sugar based product which is running flat out and has no spare capacity available to be retasked.

It will likely be at least 1 month after the factory becomes dry before production can begin again. As of today, this factory is still closed and flooded. I can only guess when it will reopen. My house is in a different area of Pathumthani and still under 1.2 meters of water. I would not be surprised if Coke Zero remains essentially unavailable until the end of February.

Thai Pure Drinks has the license to bottle and sell Coca Cola throughout the entire northern and central areas of the country. A different bottler Haad Thip, has responsibility for the southern provinces of the country, and they should still have the capacity to produce Coke Zero. There is no connection between these 2 companies however, so it is not possible to divert product from the south to the northern and central areas. But if someone wanted to make a trip to Had Yai logic suggests it should be possible to purchase Coke Zero in large quantities.

Edit: Haad Thip has the world's most annoying website, but according to their map the northern most province where they are allowed to sell is Chumphon. If anyone is coming back from that area to the Pattaya/Chonburi region and can pick me up several cases I will pay a premium for it.

Thank you for this very complete reply, answers almost all the questions and time to stop I think. ( but just to stir it a little, there was Coke light in several small places in Chiang Mai, some ordered as recently as last week.)

Mai Pen Rai, this is Thailand

Very sorry to hear you are still flooded, what a mess and for so long, just incredible

I recently bought a Dell 24" monitor in Pantip Plaza, there is a Dell shop opposite IT City

Expensive- 17,000 baht but absolutely superb. If you want to pay less has a selection

I went out this week not to find any zero coke around Udon Thani.

Did find plenty of the normal coke in plastic bottles and cans. Thus logistics must be OK, inventory not.

My best guess is production ran out of aspartame (due to lack of supplies, due to flooding....) , required ingredient to produce the zero sugary variety.

Hope this helps understanding the problem

Now thats a good thought!

Most modern manufacturing models assume a production facility and a distribution warehouse where the latter is used to store the finished product and to await transhipment to distributors, the OP will know these things by virtue of having been employed in such an environment. If the production facility suspends operation the distribution warehouse will likely have inventory that can be distributed to distributor outlets although this may be constrained where flooding has occurred. It is therefore likely that some retail outlets will continue to receive supply whereas others will not by virtue of inaccessibility - it also likely that some end retail central storage facilities continue to have inventory whilst others do not.

Agreed, but here in CM there is no flooding and plenty of the 'local ( retail) ' vehicles delivering from a warehouse I know no where. That is the conundrum

In the UK turnover was pretty swift, weeks only and the PET bottles had a shelf life of around 6 months before they degassed to much. I suspect here, where it is hotter, the shelf life will be shorter.

I ask a simple question about the lack of coke Zero in CM. Thank you folks for the sensible replies, the best guess is that there are distribution problems as in the south they have Zero but no normal. in the north, normal but no zero. End of story you would think, but no

' I'm addicted to the stuff', aggressive etc etc- Replies from people who find it amusing to use childish comments in the hope that others will find it funny without any knowledge of the OP. Do these people have nothing better to do with their day than be so inane? I have no intention of saying how much or little of the stuff I drink, but it really is not possible to get addicted to it.

It really makes me wonder about posting sensible questions on TV if it brings out such people.

Feel free to keep adding more facile comments if it keeps you happy.

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During the flooding Coke switched soft drink production over to bottled water. Might have something to do with the shortages as I also haven't seen regular Coke for weeks although the Jusco store near me has Coke Zero but nothing else. In the BigC stores I've been in they don't have Coke or Pepsi of any kind. In 7/11 I haven't seen Coke for over a month. Big Cola must be doing okay as it's the only cola available in many places.

And we have an answer, albeit that it's flood related but it does appear to be the answer!

Oh Look we're right back at the answer provided by the poster, right i'm off to be facile elsewhere. What a waste of time.............

No one doubted that the floods started a chain of events. What you and CM could not seems to grasp was why there were differences in the availability of different products. TM if it's such a waste of time why are you wasting yours and mine reading this and writing your facile comments? Please I don't need a reply thank you, the question was rhetorical.

Because I find you obnoxious ( honest answer) Im sure its mutual though.

No i don't find you obnoxious, just sad

but I'll not reply again so you are welcome to the last word if it keeps you happy

During the flooding Coke switched soft drink production over to bottled water. Might have something to do with the shortages as I also haven't seen regular Coke for weeks although the Jusco store near me has Coke Zero but nothing else. In the BigC stores I've been in they don't have Coke or Pepsi of any kind. In 7/11 I haven't seen Coke for over a month. Big Cola must be doing okay as it's the only cola available in many places.

And we have an answer, albeit that it's flood related but it does appear to be the answer!

Oh Look we're right back at the answer provided by the poster, right i'm off to be facile elsewhere. What a waste of time.............

No one doubted that the floods started a chain of events. What you and CM could not seems to grasp was why there were differences in the availability of different products. TM if it's such a waste of time why are you wasting yours and mine reading this and writing your facile comments? Please I don't need a reply thank you, the question was rhetorical.