Hornell

It is 6 days too early!

Same as Mario - I had a pile of books in with other personal belongings and they were just listed as used books and were never queried. One word of advice - don't ask for trouble by detailing more than you are asked for: "cutlery" = any, whether it is silver or not; "books" = we have just mentioned; kitchenware = stuff for the kitchen whether it is new or not; "clothes" = just that - don't start listing 20 silk shirts, 4 pairs Poulson & Skone shoes etc. And one last thing - don't over insure your used and well worn household items when sending them here.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm I was in the Army for 36 years and my experience of grenades was that when you pulled the pin out and threw it, it exploded after x seconds. If it didn't, it was faulty.

What a lot of hot air and irrelevant woffle! If Company A is trying to sell you something at a higher price than Company B, C, D or X, then you only have yourself to blame if you accept the deal. Yes, Agoda is a bit sneaky in that they don't reveal the final price to be paid until you are on the final run in - but you can still cancel before you accept it. Equally, their 'lowest price' gurantee is probably valid - until you add on the 10% and 7%. The anwer is simple; if you don't like them, go elsewhere.

Agree with Worgeordie and others....... it's not worth mucking about and trying to fight City Hall on this one. I was interested when I went for my last visa renewal a week ago that the immigration official told me I had the wrong 90 day form in my passport - it was the usual bottom part of the form which they always sign, tear off and staple in the passport. The point was that the official who did my 90 days hadn't entered it into the computer so it showed that I hadn't reported. Fortunately I still had the signed part of the form and all was cleared up without a problem. Point: Immigration is more into the IT world than some of us think.

One rather hopes that TAT has someone in PR who scans the press etc to report on what is being said about tourism here. If so this forum cannot have escaped his/her notice; if not then it is high time TAT took off the blinkers and started doing so. Every time TAT comes up with a new scam/scheme or cunning plan the comments in the media (mainly from farang) are the same; forget the cunning plans clean up your act and the tourists will continue to come. What does cleaning up the act mean? Various measures have already been referred to: taxi/limo scams at the airport, jet ski scams, filthy parks littered with rubbish and with few basic amenities, double pricing, trains that....... - words fail me here, buses and minivans that recklessly break almost every known safe driving code.... the list goes on and on and on........

So TAT, if someone on your staff is reading this, precis the forum and send it to the boss - oh I'm sorry, you can't do that becaause he's senior to you. Hmmmm, so I suppose it's just more of the same then. TIT.

Ruddy heck Thesetat2013 "i read all forums every day"!!! You must either have a lot of time on your hands, be immune to drivel - or both.

"Corruption main cause of rice subsidy problems" This headline has to take Olympic Gold for the most Sublime Glimpse of the Obvious (SGO)! If this is the best the NIDA survey can come up with they need to find some new analysts.

This is a highly inaccurate and mischievous pice of reporting. The fact is that the request was made for EXTRA protection. The Army Commander replied that she already had a great deal of specialised protection and he couldn't understand the rationale behind the request for more. His spokesman later said that in any case, such a request had to go through channels ....etc. But the way this piece is written it makes it seem as though the Army is refusing to agree to reasonable government request which is not so.

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Well done ThaiVisa.com!

I used to do this trip a lot and it's a fairly easy run, but tiring as you need to keep your wits about you the whole time. Agree that Cha am is a better place to stop than Hua Hin and I reckon tak is a good next stop . I now live in the Isaan and am planning to drive to Chiang mai next week connecting with Route 1 at Nakhon Sawan and was looking through the replies to see if there was any reference to road blocks on Route 1 by disgruntled rice farmers..... Does anyone know if any parts of Route 1 from Nakhon Sawan to Chiang Mai are affected in this way? What about Chiang Mai itself - any info here? - I suppose all bets are off until after the election!

Macrohistory is actually mainly correct in what he says although the way he says it won't appeal to many! Being a farang over here doesn't mean that one gives up one's right to speak one's mind, but doing so publicly (eg in these forums) without engaging brain is what drives the thinking man away from them simply to avoid reading all the drivel. keep it up Macro....

Next it will be the temerance gangs and then - prohibition! Come back Al Capone, la famiglia will be able to operate all over again in the Land of Sobriety!

I recall an expression - 'a sublime glimpse of the obvious'. This article sure is one of those. As already stated - where the heck is the news in this?

What the heck is a "lifestyle" product?

It's pretty par for the course this; the Thais as a rule don't have an original idea in their heads and seem to be incapable of anything but simple plagiarism. When I first went to live in a village some 200 km south of Bkk 15 years ago there was one garden centre there doing very well; when I left last year there were seven of them all making hardly any money at all.

First it was drugs free, then traffic jam free, then coup free.... and now AIDS free.....!! Oh go on, why not declare Thailand to be 'death free' by 2036 whilst you're at it?!

I have lived in Thailand for only 16 years, but long enough to appreciate the fact that particularly up-country Thais manage to cope with a pretty can do attitude, as they have done for centuries, with natural disaster; drought, floods and so on. What has become apparent to me over the last few years is that this resilience has been dented by the fact that they are now beginning to understand that many of these natural disasters are not natural at all, but rather man-made or at least man-exacerbated.

Take the current flooding in the Isaan as an example; between Khon Kaen and Korat there are hundreds of thousands of rai of rice paddy under water and yet it hasnt rained in the area for well over a week. The flooding is a direct result of the inexorable rise of water caused by the opening of dam gates to the north at the same time. Many roads, not just the Mitraparp, were constructed with precious few storm drains underneath them creating a network of dykes that prevents the floodwater finding its natural courses. Few road or dams were built with any environmental assessment; there appears to be no central control of water management throughout the country and unless Bangkok is threatened as last year no-one in Government gives much thought to the problem.

It is therefore scarcely surprising that the up-country peoples patience is wearing a bit thin. Will anything be done about it? Not a chance! Just the same as three years ago when the Isaan was far more badly flooded than now, one hears the same old platitudes, but nothing was then, is now or will be done and the poor old chao na will struggle on as usual losing over half his crop to government ineptitude.

Dear Khun Chadchart,

I was most impressed by your efforts this month to experience at first hand what the average Joe has to put up with to get around the capital and the country. Well done you! It must be a first for any politician! I was even more impressed when I read, subsequent to your train journey, that the big boss railways had been summoned to the presence and given a month to sort out the mess they are in. I imagine the poor chap must have felt a bit like Hercules on being told that his next task was to clean the Augean Stables.

But to capitalise on your enthusiasm I would like to propose another mission for you to undertake: you leave Bangkok not by chauffeur driven limo with a police escort by the Phra Pin Klao, follow the elevated Route 338 and turn left on the Kanchanpisek Road West more commonly known as the By-pass. You then drive south to the junction with Rama II where you turn west towards Samut Sonkran.

This junction was not fit for purpose when it was constructed some years ago to a design by a contortionist with a knitting fixation. Later when some highly paid (no doubt) consultant determined that the toll station should be situated within 300 metres of this the busiest road junction in The Kingdom, mere inconvenience led to nail biting frustration for everyone regardless of the direction in which they were travelling. Add another million or so cars from the first car buyer scheme and the almost permanent log jam around this junction was assured.

But you will eventually negotiate this and you need only drive as far as Porto Chino at Km 25 where you can relax with a Paracetamol and a coffee before returning. But dont pick up the police escort just yet; the excitement of the outward journey needs to be tempered by experience of the Amazing Junction on the way back - even if the police havent set up a vehicle check, the queue of traffic to get on to the By-pass road usually extends for some distance. But assuming you survive the ducking and weaving by drivers in the right hand lane trying to cross at the last minute to the By-pass road, you then have the 10 km scenic drive to the toll booths at the end of Rama II, which shouldnt take you more than half an hour. You are now only left to negotiate the toll Booths, recently snarled up by the improved placing of extra Easy Pass lanes and the exhilarating climb up the Rama IX Bridge before you can duck down into the capital but you already know this bit.

I look forward to reading about your experience and if the big boss roads isnt summoned to the presence I shall be surprised. But it might be an idea to extend the time frame for him to sort out the mess say 5 years, by which time you should be safely out of office and it will be someone elses problem. Good luck!

****Post containing a derogatory racial slur removed****.

What a badly expressed, ill written and irrelevant load of drivel! This sort of letter to resident Ambassadors in a country is normal diplomatic procedure and this particular one was couched in inoffensive, practical terms that set out the Democrats' position pretty well. Whether you agree with that position or not is irrelevant; whether you consider that this country's system of government leaves a lot to be desired is also your own concern and whilst you have the perfect right to express these opinions, if you can't do so in a coherent and literate way, I suggest you keep them to yourself.

Just for information you can play golf for 400-600 baht in Korat