Ricardo

The best I eventually found were :-

Harbur Logistics Ltd 01394-674 788 £1497

Phoenix International 0845-644 1594 £1490

Both quotes were kerb-side UK to kerb-side Chiang-mai, without loading/unloading labour, for household-effects.

Hope this is of help to some other forum-member ! And that I'm not breaking any forum-rules about advertising.

We need to send a 20-foot container of household-goods, from the UK , to Chiang mai.

Does anyone know a good fright-forwarder or shipping-company ?

And roughly how much we should expect to pay ?

Grateful for any Assistance/experience

Twas a bird, apparently...

"The takeoff was aborted due to a bird ingested into one of the engines," the company said. "For the safety of passengers and crew members, the pilot activated an immediate evacuation."

Probably a chicken , trying to escape the latest rumoured outbreak of bird-flu , is my guess

So the next United flight probably served BBQ-chicken ?

I have the title deeds to a very nice bridge in London if anyone has a few million spare

Gaz

Did you buy a London bridge from me, during the Bird-Flu epidemic, some months ago ?

Or is there now competition ... in the 2nd-hand-London-bridge market ?

Sigh ... they'll be wanting to regulate us next !

Nah - got this one cheap with the help of my friends in 5th US Tactical Air Force ..... once the grunts had finished practising in Nevada and buzzed off to Iraq - they pilfered the old London Bridge we sold to them a while back

Gaz ... I've got a mate who has a bridge across the Seine For-Sale !

How about we put it end-to-end with one of ours , and sell walking-tours, London to Paris or vice-versa ?

This could be a whole new concept in international travel

I wonder what features would make the Elite-card attractive , to the average forum-member ? For example :-

The right for farangs to own a small plot of land , say less than 2 rai, would surely not result in Thailand being wholly-owned by foreigners ?

The right not to have to register one's whereabouts , every 90 days , would cut the hassle-factor for foreigners and save the hard-working Immigration-Department staff a lot of paperwork.

The right to pay normal Thai price at historic-sites , rather than an inflated foreign-idiot price , might show appreciation that card-holders had contributed something worthwhile to Thailand.

What sort of rights would we want - and consider worth B1 million ?

Apart from a lifetime-supply of Chang , natch

I have the title deeds to a very nice bridge in London if anyone has a few million spare

Gaz

Did you buy a London bridge from me, during the Bird-Flu epidemic, some months ago ?

Or is there now competition ... in the 2nd-hand-London-bridge market ?

Sigh ... they'll be wanting to regulate us next !

With age comes wisdom. Unfortunately also with age comes incontinence and impotence and I am not sure it is such a good trade off.

Don't forget the droops ... sigh ... thank God for pharmaceuticals

Presumably there must have been a recent visit , by one of the local 'movers and shakers' , to CM ?

Is it safe to book up flights in an internet cafe?

I would recommend flights in an aircraft instead

On the other hand ... not many internet-cafes crash on take-off

Since NokAir is owned by Thai Airlines, I am relying on their supervision of the start up and since their accident rate is nil, no more risky than reworked used airplanes on Air Asia or Phuket Air.

Ummm ... so sorry , but I'm sure I recall a Thai domestic-flight crashing short of the runway at Surat Thani , trying for the 3rd time to find the airport , in monsoon-conditions, a few years ago ?

Someone had taken away the essential night-time/bad-weather landing-systems , at the airport , as I recall.

Or do you mean - Nok Air hasn't yet had a bump ?

Seats are limited and may not be available on all flights.

So ... do we sit on the floor , or what ?

the Brits now watch cartoons of Bugs Bunny upside down

Only when in Australia

And then, what airline actually wants to fly big planes all the way to Europe from Chiang Mai.. I'm not sure the market is there..

Although you Might make a case , for Thai to look at a 2-stop round-trip to lesser places that are not currently served at all - such as Manchester & Amsterdam ?

And what do they plan to do , with all those 747-400s , once the new 2-decker Airbus A800 appears on their major Europe-BKK routes , in a couple of years' time ?

Were'nt there rumours of direct-to-Europe flights , a couple of years ago ?

I know - T.I.T.

Prem - abolutely Kock-Out

Whoopsie - Slight typographic-error there - Hope that it wasn't too Freudian - blame this cheap-and-tinny keyboard at Carrefour

Having just visited , gained the following impressions :-

CMIS - competent enough , in a quiet but central location , however sports-activities a little limited

NIS - loved the buildings , but farang teachers & pupils seemed a little thin-on-the-ground , and the new owner (after 2 (?) years) seems yet to have got a grip. Probably good value-for-money , and well worth considering , but do-it-yourself transport. Would probably be fine for kids likely to be spending the rest of their lives in Thailand. For example - only offers English and Thai , NO other language-options.

Prem - what can we say , abolutely Kock-Out , both facilities/commitment-to-education & Prices (Gulp) ! Caveat ... IF they can walk-the-walk as well as talk-the-talk.

Does anyone have any experience , after a year or two at Prem , how it actually works out for their kids there ? ? ?

[*]why would a thai partner require 40K per month to live with a foreigner after she marries?

Well my wife & I will have no problem getting through this sort of money on :-

School fees for our kids

Travel & tourism within Thailand

Food & costs of running a house & car

Gifts to Bhudda , mother/father-in-law , rest-of-family

Immigration-fees

And this is all creating jobs in Thailand and bringing hard-currency into the country.

But it is certainly possible to live here for less , while still contributing something to the local economy , and not being a burden on the Thai state finances. And there is nothing morally wrong with living a simpler less-materialistic life, is there ?

It is sad that , in this effort to rid the country of broke farang beggars , other good members of society may also be affected.

I wonder how damaging the publicity might be , to Thailand's international reputation and the struggling tourist-trade , when some desperate farangs are driven by these measures to kill themselves ? Or when they are kicked out , leaving their wives and other dependents to starve , or make whatever illegal living they can ?

Let us hope that the new rules are interpreted , by individual Immigration officers , with sensitivity and common-sense.

McDonald's in Thailand don't serve shakes...

Except maybe during an eathquake

Hum ... and I like McD's shakes too. Wonder why they don't serve them ?

Darn - forgot the plane again

Save water - bath/shower with a friend

Everyone but the Poms panicked

But please note that we poms DO take showers , at least once per month , even when we don't need one yet !

Still - I wonder whether I should show a bottle of imported water, at Immigration , and ask for a discount on the fee for my tourist-visa ?

LOL Guys !

Many thanks for all the helpful posts , especially lamphun , hope this thread will be generally useful to other new-arrivals.

NIS didn't reply to emails for prices etc , from their web-site , so must phone them when we're next in town !

Can you imagine an outfit called "THAIVIRGIN"international or even better "VIRGINTHAI" airways.

If they got together with old Stelios they could all end up being thought of as " fly

"EASYTHAI" whatever ways...

Good for the tourist industry

Would they have special-offers for first-time flyers ?

Or a frequent-flyer MILE-HIGH card ??

We like to use the Amari as day-visitors , for a day at the pool (100B) and their excellent lunch-time buffet , hightly recommended food and nice traditional music ! My kids love the topiary elephant & bird-cages.

Lobby & restaurant are fine too - but I must admit the rooms are past their best.

Agree that seat-back screens in Economy are now overdue.

We found that the Infant-Cots definitely don't fit Thai/Farang children over about 12 months  -  how about a bigger one ?

And the menus LHR-BKK seem never to change ?  Or is that just me ??

But the most irritating thing is the way those nice maps , which show that you are s l o w l y  getting to LoS , always seem to get switched-off from just after take-off until shortly before landing.  Pity .

When the seatback equipment is installed you can watch the location feature for hours I admit I like to see it too.

Right-On Doc !

Now if only they could fit them near the queue for Immigration in BKK , too !

Agree that seat-back screens in Economy are now overdue.

We found that the Infant-Cots definitely don't fit Thai/Farang children over about 12 months - how about a bigger one ?

And the menus LHR-BKK seem never to change ? Or is that just me ??

But the most irritating thing is the way those nice maps , which show that you are s l o w l y getting to LoS , always seem to get switched-off from just after take-off until shortly before landing. Pity .