WinnieTheKhwai

What puts me off is I have heard some bad stories re the pollution in CM. Is it so bad?

No, it isn't. Chiang Mai gets a bit of the dry season field burning crap every year in March. It lasts for about 3 weeks and results in about 3000 Thaivisa posts during that time. Then it clears.

Are there places which are reasonable to live in the vicinity that avoids the pollution?

No! Because this isn't caused by the city itself you will find that it's region-wide. It's every bit as bad (if not worse) in remote places like Pai or upcountry Chiang Rai!

Something similar applies to the South of Thailand, which gets the crap from Indonesian forest fires.

I do however rather like to live in the heart/hub of a place, so perhaps there is no way to avoid ?

You won't find it any worse or better than anywhere else. Just the temperatures are a bit higher in town.

I would not consider a move until next year and in the meanwhile can visit a few times and check out places to live and prices etc etc, though speaking to some Thais in Pattaya who are from CM they tell me it has changed a lot in recent years and the prices have increased?

Prices increase everywhere, including Pattaya and anywhere else. News at 11.

Presumably there are reasonable hospitals if necessary and a decent range of accomodation and other facilities?

Yup.

Best advice: Don't be here in March and perhaps parts of April; it's hot, dry, uncomfortable and with bad air to boot. It's brilliant the rest of the year.

I laughted at Finnish' joke. (Come to think of it, this might be the very first time a Finnish person made me laugh pretty much since that time when Mika Hakkinen was crying on the side of the track thinking nobody saw him.)

Thank you!

Will you be supplying the keys as well?

Just thinking I can rent it out, Winnie's Boutique Vintage Thai Farmer's Rentals and make 400 baht a day easily on top of the 400 baht from you.

Anyway, parking at the airport is a reaonable 50 baht a day (reasonably for short trips, obviously). At the bus station you can also park cars, which is slightly cheaper than that. (SLIGHTLY). So frankly I'd just park it at Airport Plaza or similar.

I thought Thai Visa needed some humour after all those political rantings.

Actually politics are a lot more humorous than this. A LOT.

I think it's a combination of a truly free market economy and little (if any) taxes.. Loads of people do trading of some sort.. sometimes people running tiny shophouses or even noodle restaurants make loads of money.

It says on the box where it's made.

LOL, well I'm happy to finally resolve it. Better late than never!

No wonder Thais eat 'em - they are assoicated with food....

You can't eat cockroaches. Not Thais, not anybody.

(You're probably confused with water beetles (Malaeng Da)

Now you know.

The Atlanta policy seems remarkably similar to the Thaivisa forum rules and policies.

Sounds remarkably similar to the guy who claimed that the Gulf of Thailand would not be affected by melting polar ice because it was too far away.

Cosy Corner is the legend. John's Place came much later.

Things like this could cause an occasional dip, things like this in competing countries could cause an occasional spike. As will the general economic situation, which isn't that great right now especially in the USA.

But frankly I think the biggest threat to tourism in Thailand is the perception that Thailand gets too many tourists. (And/or is too Westernised, along with the rising cost of air travel.)

How does one know if an establishment is 'Joiner Friendly' or not – What signs give away that a place is 'Joiner Friendly', what signs give away that a place is not 'Joiner Friendly'?

You ask them.

There, how hard was that.

If you where running an establishment that you decided could do better without the 'Joiner Trade' how would you get the message across that 'Joiner's are not Welcome'?

I would put up a sign.

There, how hard was that.

I believe that this is one of the topics that are banned and we're not allowed to talk about it, as per the forum rules.

Don't know how desperate they may be though.

I think one look at the place will tell you that you'd have to be pretty $*(#$P)# desperate to work there.

Yes, I'd be interested to know where some/all of those places would be moving to.

It makes sense of course, it's a big plot of very prime land.. The next 4-5 star boutique hotel awaits no doubt, as if Chiang Mai isn't way heavy on fancy 5 star hotels these days...

I have read many publications that say the moat is 1 square kilometer.

Seems that one look at Google Maps beats reading a lot of publications. ( It's actually close to 1 square mile, as the sides are all around 1600 meters, roughly 1 mile.)

As for the population of 300K, I assume that's a miscommunication too; some people in their heads think that muang district = the old town. I recently corrected a Wikipedia entry on that even.

So for Muang district I think 300K residents is fairly accurate, thought this possibly only includes people who are actually registered on their ID cards and/or house registration documents; all the migrant workers in all the apartment blocks in Santitham et al probably aren't in that number. I don't know that for a fact though, but fortunately neither does anyone else.

Think 'partner' needs to be defined a bit better.

I think 'Cheating' needs to be defined better.

Not Easy Living With My Wife's Family - Same For You?

No, it's not the same for me.

I have a great relationship with my wife's family, they don't live in with me but they live 30 minutes away so often we visit them or they visit us like once every two weeks or so, her mum is a great babysitter and a great, honest, hard working and fun person, my wife only talks bad about me when it's deserved. ( ) and even in those cases my Thai is fluent enough to join into the conversation, and pretty much all of the time my mum in law is on my side.

So in short, 'no'. Interesting replies so far though, keep em coming. Tells you a bit doesn't it.

Would that be the racing-themed bar where the bar tending woman didn't know what Formula 1 is?

With the current news it's hard to tell what is in jest, and what is supposed to be serous news:

This one:

-------------------------------------

PAD Demands 70 Percent of Referendum Votes Appointed By Bureaucracy

BANGKOK – Responding to the government’s decision to settle the current political crisis through a nationwide referendum, the People’s Alliance For Democracy has tentatively accepted the proposal in principle so long as the votes are 30% from voters and 70% appointed. This ratio is on line with the PAD’s stated ideal of Thai democracy, where election results are moderated by people who know better than easily-deceived upcountry voters.

“We are willing to work with the despised and criminal Samak government on this,” announced Sondhi Limthongkul, one of the PAD leaders. “Let the referendum show what the Thai people are really thinking, with 70% of their thoughts appointed by moral and social leaders.” He vowed that the PAD would honor the results and stop protesting if a majority showed support for the current government, but expressed confidence that the votes would prove that the PAD’s mandate was the most popular.

The Samak government had no response to the PAD demands as of press time, but analysts believe that they will object to the conditions and press for the “traditional” referendum system of one person, one vote. ASTV and Manager have already broadcast editorials strongly condemning this “pluralist” system of democracy as “corrupt” and “anti-Thai.”

According to Sondhi, the 70% of referendum votes will be chosen by an elite panel of retired generals, titled Bangkok families, and the board of the Crown Property Bureau. The counting of the votes will be done by the Army.

http://www.notthenation.com/pages/news/getnews.php?id=581

--------------

... is in jest... Or is it? It's pretty much par for the course of a PAD gathering!

Not a bad computer,actually pleased with it. Just a fake Windows XP program on it. ( It came with Vista, I'm sure a illegal copy as well, but told 'em to throw the XP program in instead..)

LOL.

SVOA is a proper brand and the Vista copy would have been legal. Then you ask Somchai the TescoSalesDude to put XP on it for you, and, to close the sale, he does so. I don't think you can complain about this one.

All is not lost though, there should be a Microsoft sticker on the computer somewhere; just re-load Vista and use the key printed on it.

Keep this in mind before blaming Tesco or SVOA.

Think of it as a bar girl and it's eyeing your wallet.

Hold that thought. Please.

(The worrying thing is that I've actually had worse. )

So yes, this tri-colored animal has definitely all the potential to be part or the start of good fortune for you IF you provide it with a warm loving caring home. Don't forget, he/she came to you for a reason!!!!

Food?

Me too.

Enough already, let the man do his job.

And it's a nice 'big middle finger' to the puppets in the corrupt "constitution" court as well.

On their SuperDeals list, they have a R/T ticket from BKK to London and return. Dates are 13 - 21

Sep. Price listed is 12,900 baht plust taxes, etc. Check it out if interested. Sounds to me like an unbelievable price.

I can't find it on their site; where is it?

(Even if this is ex surcharges, I have to fly to Europe soon and need some TG points)

Excerpt:

So Newt Gingrich & Co. couldn't get Bill Clinton out of office for lying about sex with an intern. Dennis Kucinich couldn't get George W. Bush out of office for lying to take the country into war.

But over in Thailand, they can remove their leaders from office for appearing on cooking shows!

You read that right. Yesterday, the Thai Supreme Court ordered Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to resign his seat for receiving $2,350 in illegal payments for appearing on the popular cooking show "Tasting and Complaining." Samak had in fact been the host of the show for seven years prior to becoming Prime Minister, and food was always his trademark.

In full: http://blog.indecision2008.com/2008/09/10/...peachment-tree/