StevieH

chiang mai saloon does a reasonable veggie burger as it goes.

was spot on that yesterday, hugely enjoyable. i too ache somewhat today, although that could also be down to the numerous singhas at warm up club last night.

Peter Reid to be named Thailand manager

By Chavy Chase

Last Updated: 14:28am BST 10/07/2008

Daily Sport

Peter Reid is to be named as the new coach of Thailand's national ladyboy team next week, though he has described reports that he has already lost his trousers as premature.

The 52-year-old former Leeds and Manchester City manager has held discussions with representatives of the PDA in Bangkok, and his agent is due to catch the bus down to Pattaya next week for further talks.

The Thai LBFA are seeking a replacement for Somchaiporn Shemanawan, who screamed and threw herself off a condo after Thailand failed to qualify for the 2010 Ladyboy World Cup in Nicaragua.

Reid, who rejected the chance to manage a bar in Pattaya last year, has been out of Thailand since leaving Soi Cowboy in January 2005, and has recently been working as a crime fighting superhero in Milton Keynes.

The former England midfielder travels to Thailand every six weeks with Ian Rush and Viv Anderson and, having given his opinion on "a nice bit of skirt, the beer and the technical difficulties of speaking English as a second language", he admitted he was intrigued by the prospect of learning Thai cooking.

"F*** me! It's a bit f****** premature, and I haven't f****** signed a f******* deal, but my f****** agent is f****** going over there next f****** week to see the ******* Thai Lady Boy F****** A, hopefully to f****** finalise things," Reid said in his softly spoken, yet hugely coarse and colourful Scouse accent.

"I would f****** like to go. I've had a f****** couple of f****** opportunities in f****** international football - f****** Iran offered me a f****** job, which I didn't f****** take for f****** personal reasons - but this f***** one does f****** interest me, it's f****** good for the f****** CV, and, hopefully, I can f****** get them to the f****** [2014] World Cup.

"F*** me! There has been some f****** interest in f****** England, but I haven't f****** been able to f****** get a job. F*** me! I haven't got a f****** bad record, but nothing's f****** happened. It f****** looks like I'll f****** have to go to f****** new pastures and f******* international football f****** interests me. It's the f****** highest level."

hahaha! excellent.

reid is one of the current batch of english ex-footballers who are completely unemployable in the english league. he wants to be a tracksuit manager but thinks that wearing a suit gives an air of gravitas, a lot like sam allardyce. what they should really have concentrated on was becoming good coaches and trainers rather than managers.

it may be about reid's level. he was pretty rubbish as a club manager in england.

good shout on the not-riding-on-the-left-side-of-a-saengthaw. they're apt to swerve over to pick up a fare at any nanosecond so you're always best off being on their right side. well, better off, at least.

since visiting vietnam i've found myself using my horn far more to make people aware of where you are. thais don't use the beep-beep anything like as much as the vietnamese do.

i'd really like to join the badminton exploits please. . . .can't play saturday afternoons unfortunately but can do weekdays any time at present or sundays. anyone fancy a game this coming sunday? cheers.

i got knocked off on friday by a <deleted> saengthaw on chang moi road. of course he stopped and checked on my wellbeing afterwards rather than scarpering round a corner in a cloud of black smoke. thankfully i was wearing my lid.

There is one on the night bazzar road (not sure of the rd name) but its oppisite the entrance to 'The Peak'

yeah i've been to that place, has a good range of cigars and looked to have pipes, tobacco etc. good little place.

Maybe it has gotten better in the last 10 years.

When I did it, I was bored to death, my butt hurt from the small wooden benches, there was no place to use the toilet and I couldn't read with out feeling sick.

Eventually our big, slow boat flipped over in the night losing many people's belongings and we had to be resued by a boat passing by. When we got to Luang Prabang we found that our experience was fairly common. I would never take that trip again if there were any other way to do it.

it's definitely improved in that case UG. the small wooden benches are still present but you can buy cushions to put on them before boarding the boat. also with it not being peak season the boat is not full of passengers so you can shift the seats around and make yourself a bit of a more comfortable area. the boats have a western toilet on board and also a little bar / shop type affair selling beer, soft drinks and snacks. i travelled on it in may and we never got above 30km/h or so, so sickness wasn't a question. was just a lovely, lazy way to get down to luang prabang via some amazing landscape.

Sounds lovely Stevie. Please, which agency did you book with?

Thank you.

any agency will offer you the same thing, jazzed. air con minibus to chiang khong, six hours through beautiful landscape, then one night's accomodation in chiang khong followed by the two day boat trip and one night stopover in pak beng all for about 1,500 baht. the staff at the guest house in chiang khong will also sort out the paperwork for your laos visa for you.

thanks for the nod bill, i'll do just that.

thanks for that mate, appreciated.

I'l probably spend 3-4 days in CM then head for L.Prabang by air, or maybe try an adventure down the Mekong towards Viantiene.

for what it's worth mate, i highly recommend the slow boat ride to luang prabang if you have the time. two days and one night on the mekong down through amazing landscape to LP. i loved it.

can anyone recommend (a) decent place(s) to buy furniture bits and bobs in chiang mai please? am after specifically balcony / patio type table and chairs and also easy chairs / sofa style stuff too. the greater value for money the better. TIA.

Compliments will get you nowhere.

Have a butcher's at this

hehe. that's all very well but what would a bunch of wifebeating, aborigine-opressing convicts know about anything?

beaches are frankly over-rated anyway. sand and brine in every crevice and far too many whining tourists.

top post that bluelotus.

there are a couple of places i've used along the north side of the most, on sri poom. they're marketplaces for tech kit, couple of floors of small shops selling all sorts and everything. or there's the big pantip plaza down near the night bazaar, similar to the pantip mall in BKK.

i've been all over thailand in the past four months and chiang mai is unquestionably my favourite place. i love it here, the people, the city, the layout, the entertainment, the lifestyle. it's got about everything i want and i've just come off the back of living twelve years in london.

incidentally i also think there's more to chiang mai than pool.

I hear that Baan Thai is nice and fits most of your requirements. There is a pool and ample parking and most places ( studios ) rent for about 6.000. With reasonable utilities you bill will be around 7.000.

They have wireless internet access and free WETV.

They will do 6 month leases.

thanks for that, had a look there earlier today funnily enough and it seemed pretty good. very friendly and helpful desk staff.

Just accross the road from there is the new building where the Bangkok Bank will be and the new Lotus Express is. It is not open yet but my guess is that alot of people from the other older buildings will move there. Units on the rear of both buildings get FREE nightclub music until 1am.

They installed the AC units last week so it should be opening in a month or 3.

thanks again but that's a wee bit down the line. . . .am looking to grab something in the next week or so really.

top north guest house on soi 3 off moon muang was good, they have a few spacious air conned rooms at 500b per night and the pool there is really nice. food was a bit on the pricey side mind so don't eat there.

have you considered doing your own laundry and cleaning?

Check out Flora House - http://www.flora-house.net/index.html.

thanks waveydavey, will give it a look.

Don't stay at huay kaew residence what ever you do. The internet neverworks and you have to pay for the pool. Also my aircon broke after 1 month of being there and they wanted me to buy a new unit for them!! What the <deleted>. They say "but you use it", yeah about 3 times, that should be thier responiblity. Eventualy i settled on paying half as it was coming up to songkran and gettin propper hot. The mattresses are hard and It also noisey with people leaving fashion club, shouting and fighting. Mai dee mak loi

cheers sparrow, have heard similar from other people about that place. shame really as places with a pool are at a premium, they could do well off that.

new place called the dome off the right hand side of huay kaew looks ok, 10,000 per month for a suite with separate bedroom / living room. also has cable TV and ADSL.

still hunting, mind.

hi all,

am looking for a condo / apartment to rent in huay kaew / nimmanhaemin / north-west area for about six months or more. serviced / security, less hotel roomesque the better, tall buildings welcome and a pool would be nice. anyone recommend any please?

thanks in advance.

Hi, it is illegal to smoke anywhere inside - air con or not. However alot of places are so mostly open air that it's too hard to distinguish whether you are outside or inside so smoking seems to be permitted throughout. Alot of places also have the signs up saying no smoking although they allow it anyway. Also there are some places that are totally inside but don't seem to care about the law.

You can't smoke in any of the clubs though - Warm-up, Spicy, Bubble, etc.

I could give you a more detailed list of those that allow if you want a PM

aye, thai bar owners have told me that the law is in place but is largely ignored due to a) half the bars being pretty much open air anyway and them not wanting to turn your money away.

i've found that it's more the thai bars that let it slide while the farang bars are more no smoking but provide tables / areas outside for them as need the coffin nails.