Changian

Thai innumeracy appears to be alive and well.

^ Another thing holding back northeast residents and one of the reasons why no multinational accounting firms have moved their Thailand HQ to Khon Kaen.

Achara is smiling in the photo as The Nation employed her on a salary of US$100,000 a year. ( So she believes )

I have a feeling that with all the will in the world the good citizens of Chonburi arent going to be able to put on a show like the Shanghai Expo.

If you are in no hurry to get to Koh Chang from Pattaya take the coast road for as much of the way as you can. Takes you past Rayong, Ban Phe towards Klaeng and Chantaburi. Some very nice beaches, great views and hardly any traffic. Much more interesting than just staying on Highway 3

China is always copying others' ideas, but who'd like to sit in a Chinese made train doing 200 km/h?????

Holy shit. :jap:

Dont knock it until you've tried it.

I went on the new Shanghai to Nanjing line a few weeks ago. Best train I've been on. Silent and very fast. Feels like you are on a plane. According to the display in the carriage it got up to 280km/h during the 25 minute - 85km journey to Suzhou, apparently it can cruise at around 350km/h and is now the fastest regular high speed train service in the world - beating the Spanish one. Ticket price to Suzhou was 41 Yuan (200 Baht.)

Shanghai-Nanjing is over 300km and the train does the journey in about 73 minutes, including stops at stations on the way.

Do you think some of the bikers on here actually do this for a living.

There must be some demand for an express long distance service - by ER6n, Harley, Hayabusa etc. Some of the guys who regularly ride up north from Bangkok could take a passenger, the fare would probably pay for their gasoline.

As MauGR1 said - Don't go to Centrepoint.

It is a bit cheaper but is very slow and has fewer sailings than Koh Chang Ferry, which leaves from 'Ao Thammachat' No need to go to Trat, take the 3156 just after the police army checkpoint 25km before you reach Trat.

See the Googlemap of the driving route via Koh Chang Ferry here: http://iamkohchang.com/getting-to-koh-chang/driving-bangkok-to-koh-chang

But interesting how this ties in with the news that an opposition MP recently predicted a coup in October. Wonder if the sales of stationary in Isaan have spiked recently.

TV has quite a few members, maybe if we all write to Gen Anupong and say we think George would do a better job than Abhisit he'll have another coup for us. No harm in asking.

Or the next time they have a coup True should be in charge of marketing it on satellite TV. The public could vote ( 5 baht/SMS ) for the contestant they want to take over the country. At least that would help pay for the cost.

What's the world coming to when you cant trust a drug dealer in Bangkok not to rip you off.

One man's 'free spirit' is another man's 'bit of a dick' - anyway I'll use this thread to boost my post count too.

RIP to some guy I didn't know.

Unfortunately Elisabetta will probably never get any clear answers.

The Thai establishment - regardless of which political party is in power - tends not to disclose anything that portrays members of the govt or army in a negative light. Eg The Saudi gems case - how long has that been going on?

A panellist suggested that the media should do their job in changing the misperception by reporting on the lives of the unhappy rich. That is an awesome suggestion, but will the articles find readers?

An even more awesome suggestion would be that the media could investigate cases of corruption and bring them to the public attention.

But is The Nation going to investigate, say , the procurement of the magic G200 bomb detectors? I doubt it unless they can find a link to Thaksin - in which case it will be front page news.

Seems to me that someone is sleeping with someone else in this case. Just who is sleeping with who is what we don't know for sure.....

The number of known unknowns seems to be decreasing with every new revelation in this never ending soap, which just leaves the unknown unknown factors to focus on.

Download Radio? Sure! on the computer at home. Over 13,000 stations to choose from. It can also record programs as MP3's, then burn a CD and you have a few hours of good radio when you drive.

My torrent speed is getting better now. Around 100K today on TOT.

Something I noticed that one of the more tech savvy members might find of interest is that TOT have been changing IP addresses. My IP was always 125.xxxxxxx I noticed that when torrents were crawling it was 180.xxxxxx, today it is back to 125.xxxxxx

Does this mean they have some people on TOT connections that are throttling torrents and some on unthrottled TOT connections?

So is it OK to use this this fuc_king word in posting?

No. Only the Admins get to use big boys words in topic titles. We have to make do with 'fack' or 'fock' so as not to offend.

Was getting 2kB/s like everyone else on TOT, yesterday went back to normal 100kB/s+ for a while with protocol encryption enabled on Bittorrent. Today back to 20kB/s.

But using Tor gives me around 80-100kB/s right now. Seems the simplest fix for a half decent download speed.

The airport train in Shanghai suffers from a similar issue- it's less of a hassle, and not much more cost, to take a car directly from the airport to one's hotel or home. And in Shanghai they have the added novelty of the train being a Maglev.

Unless of course you just take the subway from Shanghai Airport to your hotel in the city centre. Cost 6 Yuan ( 30 Baht ). Used it last week - simple and cheap.

BBC works fine for me on TOT ADSL

Bright sunshine in Koh Chang this morning - so it must be good in Samet too. (Somehow I dont think it will last.)

There are a couple of army checkpoints - but they wont stop you unless you look like you are shipping illegal immigrants into the country. I have driven from Trat to Hat Lek a dozen or more times and no hassle at all. Dont actually stop at the checkpoints just slow down. But if you were in an old pick up with loads of Isaanners who look Cambodian then they might get questioned. Take time to follow the coast road past the beaches and a couple of nice fishing villages too if you arent in a hurry.

There is also a police / army checkpoint on Highway 3 about 25km before you reach Trat, coming from Chantbauri direction. Again no hassles, I have been asked to show my driving license a couple of times but never have tpo pay anything as the army are there. ( I use an old UK licence from 20 years ago - a tatty bit of pink paper) They are also checking for road tax and anything dodgy coming into Thailand from Cambodia.

You shouldnt get charged 4000 just to see a doctor. Only been to the International Clinic once when other clinics were closed and I needed a couple of deep holes in my leg cleaning - from a cat bite. No way they could know I was a tourist or not as they never asked me and I didnt have to show any ID at all. I ended up with a bill for around 2000 baht which included a rabies jab that was billed at 1400 baht - I think. ( Got subsequent jabs from a clinic in Kai Bae for a few hundred baht. Located a couple of hundred metres north of Cliff Beach Resort by the main road. Nurse/Doctor/Owner - not sure of her qualifications but she speaks English OK.)

Or KP Clinic in the centre of Klong Prao - owner speaks some English.

There used to be a very good private doctor's clinic 'PP Clinic' but that closed over a year ago.

Unlikely the OP will respond. He has a business on Koh Chang and wanted to rent the house during the rainy season when he was back in France. He lives in it during the high season.

You wont find a nice house on the beach to rent weekly/monthly on Koh Chang. And if you are just staying for a week in high season then you'll be better off in a hotel.

Another example of news getting skewed when it is in the hands of a Thai government news organisation. The poll wasnt anything to do with tuk-tuk's - it was about taxis.

Other news reports mention that Bangkok, 'famed for it's tuk-tuks' came fifth. But as with the previous year's polls, it's about real taxis, not tuk-tuks.

Looks like someone in the govt news agency decided to tinker with the wording and give 5th place to the tuk-tuks. Good for national pride if nothing else.

Looks like MCOT has their facts muddled bit about David Fletcher. Hardly breaking news as his arrest in Bangkok was over a month ago. See Andrew Drummonds article for The Daily Mirror

Try Coffeemaster. We pay 350 Baht/kilo which includes delivery anywhere in Thailand, can order 1-2 kg at a time no problem - whole bean or ground. Payment is just via ATM, transfer the money once you receive your coffee. They will send free samples too.

We have used use their Espresso roast Arabica for 6 years and customers love it. Some have had it delivered to their hotels in Bangkok so they can take it back home with them.