peterdigger

Precisely why I got my family out of LOS for ever in 2013 - that and the laryngeal cancer that I apparently got from breathing the foul "air" in LOS for 13 years and that resulted in me having to endure 4 months of daily radiation therapy in Oz that knocked the stuffing right out of me for four years ! Wifey lost mega baht on the house sale (she says, - we actually made a few $) but saved us all. If I may be so bold - 'doing the same thing (leaving) no matter what it costs you, if you have a wife and kids, can only be so much better for your family's long-term health. (Sorry - I know this is not an option for some). 

Nok mini was doing the CM/Udon route using 2 Saab 340 aircraft leased form an aussie company. The lease ran out and the aussie company refused to renew the lease, apparently because of fears for their aircraft, due to the unrest in Thailand. I have done the bus trip - it takes 12 hours and is not for the faint-hearted. This route and the Kon Kaen/CM route have never been a success financially and in the 20 years odd I have been here in CM several airlines have tried it and given up very quickly. I think the Udon/BKK/CM option is your best bet. Cheers.

The animal you spotted is almost certainly a mongoose. I live outside Chiang Mai and see them almost every other day. I used to live in Sakhon Nakhon and saw plenty of them there too. They are pretty swift on their feet and it would be a pretty good job for a thai to catch one without a shotgun ! I like them as they keep the snakes down on our 2 acre block. Cheers !

Thanks Geordie and others for news about Toon Army bar. Billy Mac would be mid sixties in age now - ex army and hailed from Newcastle too. He was my best mate in Sak Nahk 15 years ago. Obviously not him that opened the bar. I too left Sak Nak after 6 months and it too was the best move I ever made. Thanks agin all. peterdigger in Chiang Mai.

I was in Sakhon Nahkon briefly 5 years ago and never found Toon Army bar - but with a name like that, it must have been frequented or even opened by my old mate from Newcastle "Billy Mac" - I am just wondering if he is you Geordie ? Or if anyone knows where he is ? Or my other mate Keith (ex UK). He/they would remember me as aussie Peter (AKA Sparky) now living and married for years in Chiang Mai. Will have a coldie in Toon Army bar next time I visit Sak Nak. Cheers !

Damned if yuh do and likewise if yuh don't- but as a fellow Aussie I'd say "tread carefully mate" - Chiang Mai foreign cemetary has at least two farang graves from murders that I know of in the last 12 years. One guy built a lovely house whilst living with his Thai missus in the UK, only to find his mother-in-law had sold the place lock-stock-and-all to her son (wife's brother), just prior to the farang and wife and daughter arriving here to retire. Huge fight. No result. Thai guy says - "I own it now - you build another" ! Farang threatens legal action. Next evening, the farang was shot dead (in the back) outside his local 7/11 ! Cops did absolutely NOTHING ! Everyone knew who did it ! My advice ? Tell him, but anonymously ...(write with your left hand maybe....) but ONLY if you are 100% sure ! Life is too bloody cheap here in the Orient mate ....... but by the same token, three million baht is BLOODY HARD TO EARN ! Just do what you know is right....

We run a local locksmithing business and the cops are amongst our best customers. I asked one if he could make me a legal plate some time ago. He came back and told me "no problem, everything legal with a book and plate for 80 thousand baht" ! I promptly sold the bike and bought a new CBR 150 for 67 thousand baht. You might try going to the motor registry near the runway on the Hangdong Road. They are very friendly - if you are not a good Thai speaker, take a Thai with you. Don't forget the earplugs - all aircraft taking off and landing from the south only clear the place by about 2 hundred feet. Good luck !

Further to my story about smashed gates and faulty air-con. We got a call today to say that the guys from Siam TV can not fix the problem as it is too technical (whatever that means) and so Mitsubishi is sending their technician from Bangkok next Monday, which will make it exactly five weeks with no air-con in the bedroom. We live in hope ! Maybe I was a little pissed at the attitude of Siam TV, but I have lived here for over twenty years and I am used to Thai BS. I have never had a problem with Niyom Panich, apart from the same funny delivery hours. My wife tells me that both of these businesses (Siam and Niyom) are owned by wealthy chinese (similar to the ex-P.M.) who care only about $$$, not the customer. Whatever the outcome next week, I will still NEVER buy anything again from Siam TV. As I said earlier, we run a very profitable locksmith business and I believe that customer service is most important - good service means they will tell their friends - bad service means they will tell EVERYONE !

I never thought of that at the time Bill97 - I was too busy trying to extricate what was left of my new 4 metre long gate form the soi !

Five weeks ago my Thai wife and I purchased a new Mitsubishi air-con from Siam TV Electronic Plaza in Chiang Mai. It blew up after only a week - it had a five year guarantee ! All attempts at getting them to repair it or refund or replace it have failed. Yesterday the guys brought it back - I speak fluent Thai so I asked what they had repaired - their answer "nothing" ! We run Chiang Mai's best locksmiths and if we treated our customers like this we would go broke. The Thai idiot who brought our air-con back yesterday forgot to apply the handbrake and his new pickup rolled backwards and smashed my 4 week old 15000 baht gate - were they interested ? NO ! DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BUY ANYTHING FROM THIS CRAP COMPANY ! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED !

Does anyone out there know if Billy Macleod (Geordie) and/or "Pommie" Keith, both aged about 60, are still living in Sakhon Nahkon ? They were my friends when I lived there in 1993 but I now live in Chiang Mai. They know me as either aussie Peter or "sparks". Hope to hear from anyone !

I always see Chiang Mai as a fairly safe place to live, i imagine (hope) this kind of thing is rare here..or maybe i am naive.

Regardless, this is very sad indeed. Condolences to his family and those who knew him.

I have been living here in Chiang Mai for years and regrettably, this is not the first farang murdered here - I can recall about half a dozen or more in the last seven years, - one was a British friend of mine who ran a guest house at Mae Rim. He had been here so long that he had Thai ID. He got in an argument with a group of young Thai louts who kicked him to death. The police located the killers, locked a couple up for a few months till the "heat died down" and then let the offenders go. Another was also a Brit, shot execution style in the back outside a 7/11 store. It seems his wife's family wanted the house he had built on their land (he had a Thai wife). The police never solved that one either. His grave is in the local expat cemetary. I think Chiang Mai is pretty safe too, but the police in Thailand ? Well, hmm... don't hold your breath...

Just back from Maesai. After posting last week that in 6 years I have never been asked to show the cash - it happened ! I was well dressed and I have a non-o one year visa, but they still asked for me to show them 2o thousand baht, which I did. I had bought a lot of stuff in the market and they searched the lot ! Guess we really are not so welcome in Thailand now - incidently, they asked everyone else in the line including tourists to show their cash. Hmmm....

Further to my last reply on this subject (it took me nearly a year to get my wife a visa forOz) it does seem to appear that they have indeed speeded up the process. Well done all concerned !

Mate - I have a Thai wife too (I am an aussie) but good luck with the embassy - they are not very user-friendly at all. It is a real good idea to register your marriage with the consular staff at the Oz embassy. Marriage papers translated are fine for the application to migrate to Oz. Be aware that it usually takes eighteen months for them to approve her application ! They check every ###### thing and she needs police check, approved medical with a sealed bag for the HIV results etc. It also costs over two grand to apply these days. If you have any intention of taking her to Oz to live and you have the cash, then my advice is apply now. Then time will be on your side. Good luck !

Re the show money at Maisai border - I have been here for 6 years on a marriage visa (Thai wife) and have never been asked to show the 20,000 baht cash. I always dress well and I speak fluent Thai, but my wife says they only ask the odd farang and usually those with a lot of stamps. Guess that may change now though. I do know one expat teacher who was asked for the 10 g's - he did not have it but bluffed his way in ! Good luck all !

G'day Harry - I am an aussie living in Chiangmai - been in Thailand for years. Building costs are going up and up, mostly because of fuel costs plus steel. It costs about a million baht to build a two storey house - four beds two baths job. Add on aircon etc and the price goes up. I am building a new place here. Let the Thais do the basic like cement work etc but I am doing all the fitout, as to put it bluntly, in my humble opinion Thais can't build anything properly ! Good luck mate.

Does anyone out there in Isaan know if Brits Keith (who built a house in Sakhon Nahkon) or Billy Mac (ex parachute regiment) are still alive and living in Sakhon Nahkon ? They were good friends to me (aussie Peter) about ten years ago. They can contact me through this forum or by email at [email protected], as I now live in Chiangmai. Thanks in anticipation for any responses.

Does anyone know how much the charge is for Lao visa in dollars or bhat at the Friendship bridge?

Also do you need a photo? I have a US passport.

The cost last time I went was 1500 baht. From memory you need a photo, but it is over a year since I went and I've forgotten, Have fun in lovely Laos.

Normally the bail is set between 50 and 150,000 baht. And it could still be suicide.....

in case he would have killed his father-in-law he would have faced life and no bail. But than again Thai people do not commit suicide.

I do not know who wrote this, but I can assure you that Thais DO commit suicide at one of the highest levels in the entire world. I have been here 20 years and back in 1994 I went to 3 funerals in a month, all of them broken-hearted Thai spouses aged under 30 ! Incidently, they all chose the same way - a Mekong small bottle mixed with 40 baht of rat poison. By the way folks, only in the LOS is it against the LAW to comment on the outcome of a trial ! Any further comment is superfluous...

G'day mate. I can not recommend an agent near you, but I am an aussie and have shipped back to Oz and then to here a total of 4 times using a Chiangmai company called V Pack and Move. They are in Hang Dong, about 12klms out of Chiangmai. The boss is Mr Pongchai - speaks very good English. They handled everything perfectly - nothing stolen or broken - I even shipped a jeep to Sydney inside the container ! They once moved me from Sakhon Nakhon to Oz no worries. Hope this helps. No I do not know their number !

I have lived in Chiangmai for twenty years - this is the second such flood I have seen in that time. Thais especially government officials are regrettably lazy buggers and no one has ever heard of a levy bank here. I come from a town in Oz which used to be wiped out regularly by floods, that is until the local council built huge dykes and walls around the city area in 1989. Last month it came again (the water) in my ex-home town and zero damage. We had a saying in the army, prior preparation and planning prevents piss poor performance, or PPPPPP. TIT.

I have not used Thai Airways for over four years and I was the fourth person on the planet to become a Thai frequent flier ! A shit airline with antique planes, discrimination and to quote CEO Toxin, " Thai service sucks". He must regret having a Kiwi journo behind hin who spoke Thai ! I would rather crawl than use the worlds' worst airline..............

I avoid flying with Thai Airways if there is ANY other carrier available on the same route, even Phuket Air. I have had 2 horrendous experiences with Thai. In 1997 I was on a Thai Airbus frpm BKK to C'Mai. No sooner did we take off then the pilot announced that we were returning to BKK for an emergency landing ! Skimmimg the ricefields at about 600 feet is no thrill. Neither is one engine shutting down as we landed. Imagine my shock as I sat in the left front Business class seat after landing. They brought the ground engineer to the front door on one of those steps with wheels. The pilot came out to talk to him - they looked at me and seeing a farang they assumed I could not speak Thai. Wrong. I am fluent in Thai. They had a heated argument, turns out the cargo door was not shut but that is nothing to what comes next. The pilot abused the engineer and yelled to the effect " you idiot, who flew this plane last night, it has not been refuelled"! We had taken off on vapor. The bottom line is, a REAL pilot would have checked his instruments before taking off - just ask John Denver ! The second incident was similarly nasty. I think someone has it in for Phuket Air - doesn't the PM have an airline flying domestic routes ? Hmmm. I still avoid Thai like the plague. Their service sucks too.

I have been here more than 20 years - NO I repeat NO cop EVER does hard time here. You folks out in cuckooland (i.e. the real world) should also be advised that it is A CRIME here in LOS to even comment on the outcome of a court case here, such is the bent judiciary and cop force. He is a murderer and should have hanged. He changed his plea, but then he gets "let off" for admitting his guilt EARLIER ! Shiiiiiiiiiiit! Better you all get together and next visa run bang in a hundred USD each and get him REALLY wasted.... just an idea, a pleasant fantasy aaaghhh ! I went to the C.M. cemetary today as the wife had to pay the electricity over the road. I stopped in front of the grave of Keith Tate, a 66 y.o. Brit who was murdered here in 1998 by his darling wifes' brother, allegedly. Nothing ever came of it. Time elapses, no one cares. Then there was my friend Mike, another Brit murdered here about 4 years ago. Five Thais go to jail, change their story, let out after a few months...... There is NO justice here. End of story. (sorry !)