Beacher

90-day reporting has nothing to do with the Employment Department. It's solely an immigration requirement regardless of the type of visa you hold.

I've never known a country to work so hard at trying to convince people NOT to make it their holiday destination.

Amazing Thailand alright!

Didn't you see that dart board they use in the back office to decide on their prices each day?

That place is such a rip-off! I don't understand why people go there.

It is practically impossible to find any food stuff without sugar content , use honey instead of sugar for tea , coffee etc , although i am almost weened of coffee these days , just look at the state of many Thai teeth , especially the chidren , they just lap up the sweet stuff .

And you thought LOS meant: Land of Smiles

But we really know it means: Land of Sugar

Do people really take Michael Moore seriously? He would like to think of himself as a probing investigative journalist, but in fact he's just another cog in the mainstream media facade. Although he's a big fat man, his stories are actually pretty lightweight with numerous gaps in the information he presents and too often factually wrong. He sensationalizes all he touches and never lets the true facts interfere with the development of a story. I think the worst piece of crap he's ever done was the one about 9/11 -- let's avoid the real issues and focus on a bunch of superficial crap. The man's a phony!

Saying that, capitalism IN ITS PRESENT FORM does have problems, but that's mostly due to the fact that governments are controlled by big business. If Moore actually goes into this with some real depth, then maybe he's got a film worth watching, but it would be the first time ever that he actually dug deep and took a chance of upsetting anybody of importance and power.

Both governments and corporations in democratic countries are controlled by the choices the public makes. If he made a movie about how stupid, selfish and greedy most people are, and that the source of most of their problems is themselves, how many tickets do you think he would sell?

Part of the problem is people themselves, not most. And, it's not a given that democracy dominates or that people have public choices (US party politics is case in point). The general movement away from democracy towards worldwide plutocracy indicates otherwise. However, believing the problems of capitalism are mostly due to the fact governments are controlled by big business is somewhat one-sided. Ever bigger governments as well as ever bigger businesses have a common denominator: controls of capitalists, desiring to get ever bigger. The control of government is indirectly through its debt and legislation partial to the general interest of values based on capital. The control of business is as shareholders and through management that can lobby legislators for the particular interests of capitalists. Capitalists, businesses, governments primarily revolves around plutocracy, not democracy, as far as I can see. Indeed, to reverse the movement from plutocracy towards democracy appears as part of a radical reformation of capitalism, which pertains to my previous post.

I agree that I've over-simplified this, and it goes much deeper than big busioness, but my main intention was to state that if people believe that they have a true choice about who sits in power in the government and that these "governments" are truly democratically elected, they are wrong and a bit naive in thinking that.

I gave up on the search function here ages ago. Never has it returned anything useful or relevant.

Both governments and corporations in democratic countries are controlled by the choices the public makes.

I really can't help but think that your view on this is somewhat naive!

Do people really take Michael Moore seriously? He would like to think of himself as a probing investigative journalist, but in fact he's just another cog in the mainstream media facade. Although he's a big fat man, his stories are actually pretty lightweight with numerous gaps in the information he presents and too often factually wrong. He sensationalizes all he touches and never lets the true facts interfere with the development of a story. I think the worst piece of crap he's ever done was the one about 9/11 -- let's avoid the real issues and focus on a bunch of superficial crap. The man's a phony!

Saying that, capitalism IN ITS PRESENT FORM does have problems, but that's mostly due to the fact that governments are controlled by big business. If Moore actually goes into this with some real depth, then maybe he's got a film worth watching, but it would be the first time ever that he actually dug deep and took a chance of upsetting anybody of importance and power.

The most logical information I've seen regarding a girl's legal age to have sexual encounters is: 15 WITH PARENTAL CONSENT and 18 WITHOUT.

One of my favorite bars on Soi 8 was closing as I walked up to it at 5 PM. Reason: few customers. The night before, they only had two girls working the bar and few customers. A lot of bars are closed but mainly due to the economy and low tourism from what I can see. The streets were rather empty. I walked into a GoGo bar on Soi 7 at 830 PM and only four customers, us. The girls are getting hungry. Buyers market now, definitely not seller's market.

There you go applying Western logic to a Thai situation. Anybody who's lived in LOS for an appreciatable amount of time knows that the economic rule of "supply and demand" does NOT apply here. As the demand goes down, the prices go up (to compensate for fewer customers). Simply a Thai fact of (business) life.

That's pretty funny.

It was quite clear that the Bangkok Post was nothing more than a vehicle for Thaksin's propaganda when he was in office. Nothing negative toward the government was ever printed, and it was clear that all items in that rag were approved by the PM's office before going to print. However, now that he's out of office he wants the Post to suddenly change what it's been doing from day one - pandering to the PM's office.

Well Mr. Thaky, If you want honesty and transparency in mainstream media, you should have done something about it when you had the chance. Don't scream "foul" when those in the drivers seat are doing the same thing you did - using the press to their advantage.

Don't forget smoking... the little kids outside the internet shop by my apartment are outside smoking all the time. They can't be older than 10-14 many of them.

Well, at least there's some consistency here in Thailand. I see 10, 11, 12...year old kids racing up the street going the wrong way on motor scooters. They obviously don't have don't have licenses (as they're not old enough to get one yet) and they don't wear helmets. If Thai parents and authorities can't be bothered to enforce laws to stop such blatant unhealthy and illegal activity, how the h*ll are they going to stop things like underage drinking and smoking, where the kids are being sneaky?

I have a policy of avoiding any place with Tony's name on it as if it were a repository of the Black Death. One trip to his Gin Palace off Walking Street was enough to warn me off.

I just can't bring myself to give Tony any business, either. There's something very undesirable about a business man who's so in love with himself that he figures it's necessary to put huge pictures of himself with arms crossed arrogantly looking down at his (potential) customers. Egos as big as Tony's are a real turn off for me.

Nothing but gum flapping. Don't expect any changes.

When did Thailand start to hate tourists so much?

Don't we wish that something was actually done about this notorious scam? My bet is that this is only more of the useless tongue wagging that (Thai) politicians are so good at.

Apart from likely being ineffective, I would be afraid that Thais might see it as being rather arrogant - like saying, "since you Thais don't seem to know how to do things properly, we'll set up this committee to sort stuff out for you."

I think it might be seen as an "us against them" type of situation and would only widen the gap between foreigners and Thais.

One must remember that saving face is extremely important to Thais, and this wouldn't help in that area.

If it is shipped to you directly by the shop you will at minimum incur substantial customs duties.

If sent by Fedex, UPS or other courier, may well get tangled up in FDA clearances etc

For vitamins/melatonin and such personally I just stock up while on visits home, otherwise best bet is to have someone back homne buy for you and mail in an ordinary hand-lettered parcel by regular airmail.

Before resorting to this, make sure what you want is not available here under another name. (see posted link on MIMs)

Thanks!

You've confirmed my fears about clearing customs, etc.

What I'm after is OTC medications, but I can see how it could be a tied up at customs, anyway.

I checked in pharmacies in Pattaya and could not find what I was after, so I'll grab a decent supply the next time I go home.

(That title should say Big/Good Chemist's shop...)

I was wondering if anybody knows of a good big chemist/pharmacy in Pattaya. I am looking for some vitamin K cream and other hard to find items.

Alternately, if not in Pattaya, how about Bangkok?

Any contact info (store name/phone/email) would be appreciated.

Fascino and they are situated on North Pattaya Road between 3rd road and Tescos on the opposite side of the road. I hope this helps.

Many thanks!

I now remember that pharmacy, but wasn't sure of it's location and never knew the name of it.

There are some health products that I need and can't find in Thailand, so I was sondering if anybody knows an online store they use for ordering medicine. I'm not after prescription drugs, just a couple of over-the-counter items.

My main concerns are how long it takes to get here, how much the delivery charges are, and is the service reliable, i.e. does the stuff always arrive? Also, does it make it smoothly into the country, or do you usually have to fart around with customs, duties, etc.?

Thanks for any and all info.

(That title should say Big/Good Chemist's shop...)

I was wondering if anybody knows of a good big chemist/pharmacy in Pattaya. I am looking for some vitamin K cream and other hard to find items.

Alternately, if not in Pattaya, how about Bangkok?

Any contact info (store name/phone/email) would be appreciated.

What are your thoughts on this ?

I find them all very annoying and give them nothing these days. The blind singers are the worst of them all,it wouldn't surprise me if they end up deaf as well with the volume of those machines they carry around with them.

Wow, that's a little harsh isn't it?

At least these guys and their partners are trying to do something for their money. They're showing some pride and not just grabbing handouts. It's the guys are are obviously not really handicapped that get me, or even worse is the older ladies who "rent a baby" and sit there with their hand out waiting for money - they should be arrested for exploiting an infant.

I've bought cheap DVDs and have found that the quality from the USB is not too good: stuttering poor lip synch etc. They can also take a long time to read the files. Another problem with the cheapies is that they don't read actual DVDs so well. Two I bought from Big C less than a year ago I have just thrown away and replaced with LG.

I have found LG DVDs work well with the USB (though for some reason the instruction manuals don't even cover how to work this facility; you have to work it out yourself). They also read some of the poorest quality DVDs and VCDs (I have a four year old so DVDs are badly mistreated). And they are very well-priced.

I'm no expert but I know what works for me hence the recommendation.

Fortunately, I haven't had any of the problems you mentioned (apart from the delay loading the files) but I don't use it very often and completely expect something to go wrong with it before too long. I was just curious about these newer DVD players, so I thought I'd take a chance. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, this will likely be the last we'll hear of this. The gun-wielding a**hole of a cop is probably out working his beat right now, confident that he won't even get a slap on the wrist. This type of crap makes Thailand a laughing stock of a nation around the world. It's no wonder that people see Thailand as a country of children.

I recently bought a DVD player at Tesco that has a USB port. It cost 650 baht (Alpha brand, I believe) and plays the vast majority of files AVI, Mpeg4, etc...but not WMV.

Oh ya, it also plays DVD's -- heck of a deal.