Ricardo

Only 3 of his 4 children cried?

What about that sexy 'god daughter' ?? She didn't cry did she?

There must be a shortage of onions ...

Shopping is great at the twin towers mall area (forget the name). Great western sized stuff (they have shops like La Senza!)

KLCC.

Love KL - leaves BKK standing. No specific recommendations for hotels, but some reasonable options around Bintang (downtown) - also a good area for stores, cafe's, restaurants etc.

Will some people never learn the rules about the use of apostrophes?

This is normal, as one adjust's to life here, you s'tart by dropping/adding apos'trophe's, and rapidly progre's's toward's dribbling into your porridge or jello. Pass the bib, please.

I've known monthly-rates be a 2/3-discount to normal prices, guess that they hope to make it on meals/drinks instead, or are just happy to have filled a base-line level of capacity ?

There should be nothing wrong with a 20-year-old plane, as long as it is properly maintained, the comfort inside depends on whether it has been updated or not. TG's elderly 747-400s and A300-600s are certainly looking dated.

Perhaps 25 years is starting to push things, but there are plenty of 30+ planes flying, especially as cargo-conversions, or in the 3rd-world, or for people like Poo-Air.

instead of the phone ins I think he should get a team together and make a high quality, engaging 1 hour movie/documentry that puts forward the case for him and the reds. Then distribute it free around Thailand, translate in English too.

This was certainly an effective tactic, for the PAD reporting corruption-allegations in the early days, they even got people to buy the VCDs so that it was self-financing. This helped increase the pressure on Thaksin, who was still trying to squelch the allegations, via the heavily-influenced normal media.

If this is true I think Abhisit can handle it. It would have been really hilarious to have seen Samak on that show though.

He would have hidden in the loos, when they started asking tough questions, I suspect !

Welcome to Chiang Mai, and Good Luck, hopefully you've already visited a few times, to 'suss' things out ?

If you're shipping effects in a container, it doesn't make any real difference to the cost, whether it's full or only half-full, so I'd load it up, especially if your wife is a Thai-national returning home after 1+ years overseas, and can get the import (in theory) duty-free by putting all the stuff in her name only, as shipper & receiver ? There are threads on this, and local-agents to clear/deliver in CM, but you might need extra storage-space.

LIST is south of town, so you'd tend to live that side too, the traffic on the Hang Dong road can be quite busy during the rush-hour. Someone was advertising an apartment to-rent in that area, about a month ago ? Watch out for the flight-paths which tend to be from the LIST-end of the runway, it's not LHR or anything, but worth avoiding unless you like planes !

Please update us about the valueable metal found in the klong.

Sadly, all that glitters is not only gold, but who knows, it might have been, TiT !

Happy April Fools Day.

I tried that 'Tokay' wine, from Hungary, once. Tasted like lizard-piss.

What's the date, again ?

I would anticipate much fuming from Pattaya-based expats, who are already hard-hit by the new ban on elephant-rides, lucky that there are no changes to the visa-requirements too !

Shaky Government's will swiftly call mid term elections if they are confident they can win, or improve their majority.

There's no great altruism about it.

Abhisit doesn't call an election because he ain't certain he'll still be flying First Class to Davos when the votes are counted. If he did, he'd call an election quicker than you can say' Royal Orchid gold card'

One might make much the same comment, about PM-Somchai and the recent PPP-government, perhaps he was less confident of a landslide/swing to Thaksin's party, than some posters here ?

As I said at the time, it would have been interesting, to see how the government's year of mismanagement, and Thaksin's first actual conviction, had changed voters' opinions on him.

Every year or so our village near Mae-Jo has a 'clean-up day, when we all turn out armed with shovels or weed-wackers or whatever, to clean up the sides of the roads, cut the grass on the village petanque-field & market, paint the village-hall, or whatever.

Rather than 'hands-on' working, my wife and I were providing drinks, and using our pick-up to provide transport as-needed.

This year the paluang and his assistants had decided, it was time to clean-out and repair the local irrigation-ditches, digging out the mud & weeds and then using concrete to fix the holes, where the water leaks out. So we all arrived with buckets & shovels at-the-ready, and started clearing the silt & mud, to ensure that the water will be able to flow better, once the rains arrive.

About an hour after work commenced, we heard shouts go up, from the top end of the village, so we headed over there, to see what was going-on, and found the villagers closely examining some of the mud, recently excavated onto the side of the klong. Looking closely ourselves, we were surprised to see something glinting in the sunlight, scattered through the mud, and the paluang talking excitedly with the other villagers.

He took a sample of the mud, to send off to the Dept. of Metalllurgy, down at the local University, and has now apparently just got the results back, which he was announcing this morning, on the village loudspeaker-system. He says that there will probably be enough money to cover the cost of our annual sonkran-festival ceremony, where all the over-60s are blessed, and get a good meal & bag of 'goodies' to take home as well.

But I'm still not sure myself, I mean can it really be true, that there's gold 'in them thar hills' ?

Whatever one thinks of Thaksin, the sight of a former-PM calling for a coup or civil-war on the streets of his homeland is a sign of extreme desperation or mental-illness, and I would have thought it unlikely to help his repeated-demands for a pardon.

He has attacked Prem and the Privy Council before, look where that led, now he repeats the failed strategy. He simply fails to learn from experience. Not the sort of person who should be running the country, or indeed anything else, in the midst of a global economic crisis, when the country has more important things to worry about.

Good points, but......

From TOC

FLASH NEWS: Royal Household Bureau Denies Existence of Pardon Requests by Thaksin

UPDATE : 13 March 2009

The Royal Household Bureau reveals that it has never received any pardon request from former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Following news report by Japan Times that ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra has submitted, not one, but 3 requests for a royal pardon. But the Royal Household Bureau reveals that it has never received such a request from Thaksin.

Staunch supporter of Thaksin, Jatupron Phromphan, has also come out to clarify the matter. He explained Thaksin hadn't submitted a request for a royal pardon. According to Jatuporn, Thaksin merely submitted documents in his defence against the various charges which have been filed against him.

Fair comment, but it was reported as a request for a pardon, and the denial & explanation by Jatupron is a familiar Thaksin stratagem, saying different things to different people, then denying it all or spinning yet another version. One reason why many farangs no longer believe anything Thaksin says. It is all too open to reversal a day later.

Another good example is the promise, that all the upheaval will cease immediately he gets what he wants, while his followers are assured that this is a fight to the death, for justice and democracy. Pure B.S. throughout.

I heard from a regular tv channel (I think it was TNN. I was in the kitchen) that tomorrow morning Abhisit will go to GH. The reds said they will hear news around 3am to 8am and will wake up and run immediately to stop Abhisit.

Khun Thaksin has just finished the video link. He said if Army uses violence to the reds when the reds do not break law and have no weapons, he will be in Thailand and will lead the reds in provinces to enter Bangkok right away.

He said Kasit will take back his passport.

Koo, if this information is correct, than Thaksin is committing an act of High treason. proclaiming an civil-war from a foreign country could lead to capital punishment. I wonder how his host country think of that.

This is the end of thaksin, he must be realy desperate to proclaim such idioty.

I would agree.

Whatever one thinks of Thaksin, the sight of a former-PM calling for a coup or civil-war on the streets of his homeland is a sign of extreme desperation or mental-illness, and I would have thought it unlikely to help his repeated-demands for a pardon.

He has attacked Prem and the Privy Council before, look where that led, now he repeats the failed strategy. He simply fails to learn from experience. Not the sort of person who should be running the country, or indeed anything else, in the midst of a global economic crisis, when the country has more important things to worry about.

I suspect DTV would not have felt that welcome when PAD/ASTV were running their show inside GH last year.

But since DTV didn't start broadcasting until this January, that situation couldn't have happened, anyway.

For me the good news is, you now have a choice of two opposing points-of-view, in DTV & ASTV, which represents an improvement on just one or the other, depending on who was in power. Media freedom comes in small steps !

It is time to plant some line & lemon to flood the Thai market.

Perhaps China might oblige, as with pungent Thai garlic, then one might get a decent lime-cordial too !

In the past, when clearing protests, they sent new set of soldiers to do because old set understood the reason when hearing what protestors said.

Just like Somchai, sending in the border-police against the PAD, because the regular Bangkok cops weren't willing to behave like thugs for him, against people they knew ? Deja-vue all over again.

Right now there have been police with weapons seen near Government House.

Forgive me, but every policeman I ever saw in Thailand carries a hand-gun, so this is hardly earth-shattering news.

Yellows occupied Government House for 3 months and 2 airports at Bangkok for a week with no problem and reds are in danger now.

Selective memory Koo, to forget the five hundred people put in hospital on October 7th, or the dead. They too were normal well-meaning Thais like yourself.

(my comments above in red)

I hope it all stays quiet & peaceful, I particularly hope (whether you choose to believe me or not) that you yourself don't get hurt, but the rabble-rousing speaches you've previously described are not designed to keep things calm, Koo.

I'm also sorry that the number of protesters seems to be only a small fraction, of what you had hoped for, and been promised by your leaders. But I sincerely doubt that the country is ready for revolution, despite what Thaksin or Giles may say, from the safety of Africa or Nicaragua or Dubai.

What's a 'hoagie' ?

Two great nations, divided by a common language, but both blessed with a good sense of humour, thank the gods.

wait till they realise you can light your own farts - a dedicated baked bean consuming group could create enough gas to cause an international incident

I heard a rumour, Ryanair are considering using this potential new biofuel, to run their planes and sell tickets for less.

In the UK, lost-luggage is sometimes auctioned-off, for charity.

At the end of the day it is the Thai people who should decide who is PM.

Of course, but I don't have a problem with the current parliamentary system, although it is good to see, that not all MPs follow their party-line, when they think it's wrong. Kinda like recent USA in that, at least, with McCain sometimes supporting his former-opponent, for the good of the country.

A few more years and the five year ban will be lifted and it will be election time.

I'm not sure that the current coalition will last that long, given the tsunami of bad global-economic news, which is now impacting Thailand. Depends whether Thaksin can 'sell' the idea that this is the fault of the current government, but not also the fault of the previous two PMs.

I doubt very much abhisit will win the next election, he simply cant connect to the rural populace. They just wont vote for him.

But it will be interesting to see, does the current Democrat fairly-populist strategy work before then, in changing the support-base of the old TRT, in those rural areas which are loyal to Thaksin, which is by-no-means the whole of the country. Also can Thaksin still win an election, which isn't being organised by a government which he controls, an interesting question. I would suspect not, in the current state of his proxy-party, at least.

Thaksin only needs to continue to inspire his supporters, be patient, maintain momentum and hope, which is exactly what he is doing.

If he can do this, it will certainly impact the arguable slow downward-drift in his support-base to some extent, however there is the little problem of the outstanding sentence/unresolved-cases. Will he still prevail, if he can't actually campaign here, in person ?

About money, his funds may be dwindling but his family and friends have billions stashed away in the various corps, its enough for an extended campaign that can and will go on until next election.

If they continue to support him.

(my comments in red above)

i.e. a french fry sandwich with butter and ketchup (and they have the nerve to talk bad about our food).

No, a sandwich would imply, that it is made with sliced-bread. Although the original 'Earl of Sandwich' reportedly just cut the loaf in half, to insert his beef, hope there are no double-entendres there.

Anyway, aren't they supposed to have been renamed 'freedom-fries', in the New World ?

A legal amendment to three laws will be implemented later to nullify regulations permitting elephants as a carriage animal,

So no more elephant-rides, for the tourists, at the elephant-camps ? Seems unlikely.

Thanks, but at those prices, I'll just have a photograph of a drink ! It's a rum do.

The other things can be proceed when Thaksin comes back, but as he is a convicted criminal on the run the courts can not proceed.

h90,

I can't understand that.

We know you can't, which is why we keep trying to explain to you, the reason all these other cases are delayed, is because the 'hero of justice' has absconded, and is not in court to face the charges.

Not because he won't be found guilty of some/all of them, as he well knows, which is why he skipped bail.

By the way, may I say 'Thank-You' to you, for the photos of the rally, which you have been posting ? Also, as somone who has actually been there, what is your estimate, of the numbers of people there ? Are the various estimates, of 20-30,000 protesters, accurate or too high ?

Or even better, if slightly more fattening, a thread on 'chip-butties', a buttered burger-roll filled with English-style chips, best eaten with tomato-ketchup drizzled over the chips IMO !