Ricardo

4 hours ago, ratcatcher said:

Submarines don't go uphill in klongs.

I may need to reconsider my plans for surfing the rapids in one, then.

2 hours ago, natway09 said:

The headline is misleading as the SRT have NEVER been ready for anything except collecting 

rents.

What they should have done & what our lord & master who loves trains & spending hard earned tax payers money should do is a decent freight rail to Lam Chabang port & get 1,000 trucks a day off the road.

Aw sorry, the trucking companies are like the police  "untouchable

The SRT's metre-gauge track-doubling into Laem Chabang port was completed a few years ago, under previous governments, and the SRT's current 20-year plan for investing in track-doubling was being under-funded long before the current leader.

Also the new Chinese medium-speed heavy-freight standard-gauge line certainly does include a spur down to Laem Chabang & the Eastern Seaboard's industrial-areas, en-route to Maptaphut & Sattahip.

There are also long-term SRT-plans (if they ever come to fruition) for inland-freight/rail terminals, along the lines (please pardon the pun) you suggest  ...

"   New freight terminals locations:
• short-term: Wa Ko in Prachuap Khiri Khan; and Nong Pladuk in Ratchaburi
• long-term: Hang Chat in Lampang; and Saraphi in Chiang Mai

Phromsorn says the plan is intended to develop rail infrastructure that will facilitate the establishment of special economic zones as well as boost tourism and local development. It is also hoped that releasing a long-term vision which places rail at the centre of the country’s transport infrastructure development, will boost prospective investor confidence."

http://m.railjournal.com/index.php/asia/thailand-unveils-dolus-81bn-rail-development-plan.html

The first section, across the flat land of Central Thailand, was estimated just a few days ago as costing 280 billion, or 737 million Baht per-km.

" Mr Arkhom said the first section is from Bangkok to Phitsanulok, covering a total distance of 380 kilometres with an investment cost of 280 billion baht. "

So the more-challenging 290-km (670km minus 380km) northern-section, to be built later on through the mountain-ranges between Phitsanulok and Chiang Mai, will only cost 140 billion  (420billion minus 280 billion)  or 483 million Baht per-km  ...  really ?

Something doesn't really sound quite right.

9 hours ago, bluesofa said:

I think it just happened to bring out all the egg jokes because of the mention of an 'egg board'.

 

It went downhill rapidly from there. I've been guilty, sparring comments with Dave67. I did wonder if I might get a reprimand from one of the mods, but it didn't actually go OT,  just got  bit silly.

It did occur to me we perhaps should have moved to the jokes forum, but never mind, eh?

It'll be all-white in the hen.d !

And if we can't enjoy a joke or bad pun, or the occasional caption-competition, with our morning coffee & ThaiVisa-news, then life would be depressing !

I had been wondering why eggs seemed so cheap, and why people were touring the villages trying to sell them, off the back of a pick-up.  This story eggsplains it !

33 minutes ago, Cadbury said:

Why stop at two opening ceremonies? Why not a third and even a fourth in the years to come?

Which reminds me of the great non-event opening ceremony of the new blue China/Malaysian buses in January this year where PM Prayut was going to buy the first ticket in front of a huge media rollout. Fail!

Typical of buses, you wait years for one to arrive, and then 400 come all at the same time !

I recall another DPM from the previous administration, who also used to be  'tired & emotional'  in-public, eventually he was given reduced responsibilities & a demotion, to help him cope with the pressure.

It was a kindness, really.

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand and China, will hold a ceremony marking the commencement of the construction of the Bangkok - Nakhon Ratchasima stretch. 

And yet two years ago, on 15th December 2015  ...

"The ground was broken on Saturday for Chinese and Thai companies to build the first standard-gauge railway in Thailand, applying China's technology, standard and equipment, the China Railway Corporation (CRC) said.

Earlier on Saturday, a launching ceremony was held at Chiang Rak Noi Station in central Thailand's Ayutthaya province, according to the CRC."

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-12/19/c_134933593.htm

Some of us may well remember pictures of this, they planted a flag on the (existing, narrow-gauge) track, to mark the commencement of the construction ?

Oh well, it must be a two-ceremonies-for-the-price-of-one  Special-Offer !

And what was that, in the linked-story, about it being  "the first standard-gauge railway in Thailand" ?  What gauge is the ARL or the BTS-Skytrain, for heavens' sake ?  And wasn't the SRT's own Northern-line originally built as standard-gauge, too ?  

Not on His watch !

I'm a non-smoker these days, but I know which one I'd rather inhale, if I had to.

But I'm probably a dangerous pinko subversive, with silly ideas about customer choice, unlike the TTM.

Perhaps its time for them to switch to production of horse-buggy whips, or gas-mantles for lighting homes, and join the 19th Century ?  

On 11/12/2017 at 12:05 AM, Argus Tuft said:

They check very carefully.  You need a departing flight from the terminal you're catching the shuttle bus to.  They check and record airline and flight number and require you to show them a confirmed booking

I can confirm that this was the case for me too, in mid-November.

I had caught the Bell-Bus service from my guesthouse in Pattaya up to Swampy (Departures), took the escalators downstairs to floor-2 (Arrivals) and walked out of door-3 to a desk, where they checked my onward-ticket from Don Muang (and wrote down the details on their list) before allowing me onto the free shuttle-bus, which dropped us at DMK Departures.

Journey-time was just over 1-hour, due to heavy-traffic at one point.

50 minutes ago, NeoDinosaw said:

why not tell us where MC and DMK are ?   To some of us this is totally meaningless

I suspect that MC would be Mor-Chit  (Northern bus-terminal & BTS-line)  while  DMK is well-known as the airport-code for Bangkok (Don Muang) International Airport ?

Work on extending the BTS is currently well-underway on extending the BTS through to Don Muang.

Time to dress up the local cats & dogs in small T-shirts !

14 minutes ago, chingmai331 said:

This thread is (meant) to be all about getting to East Coast USA, not western canada so plz omit those cheap flights to yvr, etc. Who on earth wants to go to vancouver in the winter, from Thailand?

Quite correct, my son flies from YVR to CNX, to visit over Christmas.  But then has to fly back again.

The point surely is that it benefits us, here in Chiang Mai, if we have better flight-options East or West, and don't have to fly down to Bangkok first.  And many of us have visitors in winter, don't we ?

This became more of an issue, at least for me, when they stopped being friendly about letting us interline in BKK and clearing Immigration up here.

14 hours ago, Ricardo said:

Cathay Pacific can also be quite convenient heading Eastwards from CNX, my son's flights connect in HKG to Vancouver, with only a 1-hour stopover.  Pity they're a bit pricy !

Just spotted a report that Cathay will start direct non-stop to IAD/Dulles from HKG in 2018  ...

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2017/12/13/cathay-pacific-washington-dulles/

Hope it may help the OP or others ?

4 hours ago, Mark1066 said:

I can't see how it helps really. It takes longer to fly with Qatar Airways and stop at Doha on the way to Heathrow, for example, than it does to fly to BKK and then take a direct flight with British Airways to Heathrow.

1. Cost      Qatar are often cheaper

2. Quality  Qatar are very-definitely better than BA, where I fly in Economy, at-least.  BA are 4-star/5-out-of-10 on Skytrax, Qatar are 5-star/8-out-of-10.

3. Choice  Qatar connect in the Gulf direct to a wide range of European-destinations

4.  Avoiding re-checking-in in BKK, which now adds (for me) 4-hours+, compared to being on an international-flight immediately one takes off from CNX.  OK you can buy a single-ticket, at a higher-price, I don't.

If you're flying out of CNX heading East (to the USA) then you have CathayPacific & Korean, plus the various Chinese airlines (with dubious connections).  But if you're flying West, then nothing, until now.

If we're ever going to have improved-connections Westwards, that means via the Gulf, and this is our big chance.

Cathay Pacific can also be quite convenient heading Eastwards from CNX, my son's flights connect in HKG to Vancouver, with only a 1-hour stopover.  Pity they're a bit pricy !

On 10/10/2017 at 7:59 PM, KhunBENQ said:

And the flight is a seasonal flight ending in March.

 

The good news is that Qatar have now loaded flights, onto their booking-engine, from April through to next winter !

They plan to maintain the 4-times-weekly schedule through the summer, but with a smaller A319 instead of the winter-season direct wide-body A330-200, and for the A319 they're scheduling a tech-stop in RGN on the DOH-CNX diection, but not for CNX-DOH.

Flights in summer arrive at 08.50 and depart at 09.50, for the winter season they're arriving 06.00 and departing 07.10, an early-start but at-least not 0-dark-hundred !

The main business will IMO be inbound-tourists, but hopefully the local expat-community will also support these flights, provided they don't over-price it. 

The convenience of travelling to Europe (or the rest of their network) on a Skytrax 5-star airline via the Gulf, without having an extra domestic-connection down to Bangkok to re-check-in & clear Immigration there, is something which I (for one) welcome !

Som nam na ?

" While the court rejected Jatuporn Prompan’s final appeal of his 2009 conviction for making libelous remarks  ...  it also halved his original sentence of two years to a year in jail. "

Meanwhile Jatuporn's sentence has been halved, a nice gesture towards reconciliation, and surely good news to be welcomed by pro-UDD posters ? 

On 14/12/2017 at 10:38 PM, isaanbanhou said:

yes, absolutely correct.  Shinawatra's lawyer wants to question more witnesses.  Bluespunk wants the trial to start now with the evidence that is known.  I ask if Bluespunk doesn t feel Shinawatra  is entitled to a defence.  

 

I understand it is difficult to keep up after 5 posts on a thread, but I am missing your point

"Shinawatra's lawyer wants to question more witnesses"

No, I think you're mistaken, the lawyer wants the DSI to question more people, he doesn't want to question them himself, as you believe.  Which of course would take more time, it's thus a classic delaying-tactic, on the lawyer's part.

Perhaps hoping that a change-in-government may affect the outcome, if he can spin-it-out for long enough, who knows ?

If the lawyer thinks that other witnesses can add to the defence, then he can call them as defence-witnesses, once the case is being heard. And would do so, if they improve his client's chance of being found not-guilty.

The DSI feel that they have sufficient evidence for a conviction, the lawyer feels he has extra witnesses who support his client's innocence, it's time to let the court decide which is right.

But how do you know, where a phone-call originates, when it rings & you pick it up ?

There must be something, I won't speculate as to what, about the climate for doing-business in Thailand, which seems particularly attractive to these shysters ?

I wonder how many of millions-of-passengers-per-year it would take, to justify the capital-investment in the Japanese-designed Bangkok-to-Phitsanulok high-speed passenger-only railway ? 

P'lok must have grown somewhat, since I was last there, twenty or so years ago?

More quality-tourists for the plane homewards ?

On 13/12/2017 at 1:38 PM, webfact said:

The seasonal service will operate from December 12 into May and resume for the winter 2018 season next October.

Despite what they say in the OP about May & October, I'm now seeing direct-flights between CNX & DOH on their booking-engine, right through the summer too  ...  perhaps their problems in the Gulf-region have released some of their smaller jets to test demand for the route right through the year ?

Prices from about B30k return.

Now just want to see, in the regular mid-January Sale, what their lowest-price for this route will be ?

I need 4-5 tickets for next year, CNX-LHR, but already bought the first one  ...  I'd definitely pile-in for B25k return !