NancyL

OMG, Butter is Better has "Sausage Biscuits"? That's the proper southern U.S. term for what I think Sansai Sam described. That posting got the attention of my chicken-fried southern Hubby. Wow -- cheese blintzes and sausage biscuits in the same place. We're headed there tomorrow.

Wonder if they have grits? Neither of us actually like grits, but it isn't something you see outside certain (southern) parts of the U.S. We'd eat one helping just for patriotic principles.

Blintzes aren't just a breakfast item. My fondest memories are of eating them at a Jewish deli on Friday evenings after seeing a movie on a date when I was in high school. The deli (really more of a restaurant) was large and extremely popular, so on Friday evenings it was really humming, full of families who had just come from Friday evening services at the temple.

Whoa, can we go back to the part about "blintzes"?

I was bummed out last Saturday when I read the sign about closure at the Chang Klan Bake N Bite. The new one is just too far for us song thaew riders. This thread caught my interest -- "ah, a potential Saturday morning replacement" I though. But then there was that magic word "blintzes". Haven't had one for years. Is the new Butter is Better open yet? I'm feeling better already.

The Centara uses cardio equipment from Stex -- sorry I didn't get the model numbers. There are 8 treadmills, 8 ellipiticals and 8 stationary bikes -- 4 recumbant and 4 regular. They are very well maintained. For example, a treadmill broke last week and yesterday they had two technicians in for repairs. They checked out, disassembled and cleaned all the other treadmills, too and some of the other equipment. There are 12 or 13 weight machines -- brand name Impulse. Another room has an excellent selection of weights and dumbells and about a dozen benches of various sorts for weight lifting. No rowing machines.

Few health clubs in Chiang Mai have a pool and the one at Centara is fine for lap swimming. Yes, it's dog-legged, but each leg of the dog is at least twice as long as the pool I used at our old condo. Plus, one leg is always in the sun and the other not, depending on the time of day. The entire pool is 1.2 meters deep. That's nearly 4 feet and ideal for lap swimming. The shallow water heats quickly in the sun, so you can swim year-round. You can stop and stand anywhere in the pool. It's too shallow for a diving board, so no kids doing cannonballs (like at my former condo pool). About the kids -- sometimes a few gather but they never are in both legs of the pools. If they're in the way, I just swim my laps in one leg instead of the entire pool. Oh, and they've put a big clock inside a window that's visible to swimmers. Handy for lap swimmers.

About crowding -- I go five or six days a week, for about four months so far. I've never had to wait more than 5 minutes for a treadmill and never had a wait for other equipment. I always go in the afternoon, usually late afternoon. Sometimes the locker room is a bit crowded, but I can always find a locker. They have permanent lockers available in another room for annual members who want to leave stuff on-site. That second locker room is very cool and hardly used. There is a charge of something like 1400 baht/year for a permanent locker.

The staff has always been very helpful and I've never observed any improper behaviour. Some of the hotel guests using the pool dress and behave in ways that Thais consider vulgar, but the staff remains respectful. Someone is always available when I need help with using a piece of equipment. They went to great efforts to locate my glasses when they disappeared from a poolside table while I was swimming.

So, if this sounds of interest, I'd suggest you visit during the time of day you're most likely to use the facility and talk with others about crowding, etc. You can join for a month as a trial before you invest in an entire year.

OK, I'll take notes when I go tomorrow. I do know they have eight treadmills and I rarely have to wait for one. They seem to be the most popular cardio machines. Frankly, I don't pay attention to things like the brand names of the equipment. All I know is that their stuff seems to be pretty good. At one point in my life I used a corporate fitness center where everything was state-of-the-art and the equipment at the Centara seems nearly as good.

They may have waits for the weight machines at times, but I don't use them. I got spoiled at that corporate fitness center where they had a room full of smaller-sized weight machines suitable for women or elderly men. I've not found anything like that since and just gave up using weight machines because I find it troublesome to remove the heavy weights (or change the settings) of previous users. Instead I use the Centara's various benches and dumbells. I've never had to wait for a bench and the smaller weights are always available.

The fitness facilities at the Centara Duang Tawan hotel on Loi Kroh work well for me. Annual membership is 8500 baht or you can join for a month at 1000 baht -- great for people who are here just a few months a year. The machines are kept in good repair, the A/C is cool and there's no music -- just a few TVs tuned to Star Movies or sports with the sound down low.

There's a large, very large pool right outside the fitness area and often the scenery can be quite interesting since you look out the windows onto the pool as you use the treadmills. Some regulars have complained that the hotel guest tourists can make lap swimming difficult, but I've never had a problem. Most people around the pool are just interested in sunning themselves and not in getting wet.

The locker room (well at least the female locker room), has a steam room, sauna and large whirlpool. The towels are large and fluffy. Overall, the only place I've found that was better was the fitness center at the Chedi, but its annual membership was about three times the price of the the Centara.

I've been just a few times since they starting using the ticket dispensing machine for the queue. They don't turn it on until about 8:15 - 8:20 but the waiting area is open and people enter and sit down well before 8 am. Once they start up the machine there's a mad rush for it with no regard to the order in which people arrived at the office.

There was a similar situation at the American Consulate before they started the excellent appointment system. There, people were told to stand across the road from the entrance until opening time. Then, when they opened the doors, there was a mad rush of people across the street and they entered without any regard to how long people had been waiting in the herd across the street. Plus, it wasn't safe to have everyone dash into traffic in an effort to be first at the door.

One time at the American Consulate an enterprising person starting handing out hand-written number tickets as people joined the early morning herd. The group agreed that we'd enter the building in our arrival order with the tickets serving as proof. No mad dash across the street with slow-moving people left behind. Perhaps someone who arrives early at the Immigration office could start handing out similar hand-written tickets to start a pre-queue for the queue ticket machine.

Eek, this may not be particularly helpful, but I can't help but comment on the idea of toilet training cats. I tried with our two cats and it was a disaster. I bought a "kit" that was basically a shallow pan you put under the lid and put kitty litter in it to train them during the "transition". The idea was that the cats would see the litter in the spot where the opening normally is located and perch on the seat to do their business. In reality it tied up the toilet for us because humans can't use it when the litter tray was in place. Also, the cats (who had been quite interested in the toilet) developed a real fear of the throne the first time they stepped into the tray and fell into the toilet because it wasn't designed to support the weight of a cat.

I set it up again and tried to get them to use it for a couple of days. They wouldn't get near the toilet after their little swims. One cat took to doing his business in the bathtub. At least that was easy to clean up. The other cat discovered all the nice, new carpet in our dining room and continued to use that long after I gave up and gave them back their standard litter box. We totally messed up that one cat and finally gave him away because of all the damage he was doing to the carpet. Amazingly, he always used the litter box in his new home.

Everyone I know who has successfully toilet trained a cat either had a cat who figured it out on his own or learned it by watching other cats in the household.

Like the OP, it took me a while to realize that small businesses owners here don't have the same "mind set" as in the west. You just have to learn to adjust to the fact that a business may close without warning for a few days, with no sign, especially none in English, stating when they'll reopen. That's the just the way it is here. This is how I found a new place to cut my hair, when I got tired of showing up at my previous place every day for three days in a row, finding them closed. I like the new place better. Experiment. There are hundreds of noodle shops in Chiang Mai.

In the U.S. my husband and I ran a small business and one of us were always on-site and religiously followed our stated open hours. I remember the firestorm created by some of our customers the weekend we took off to attend my mother's funeral in another state. We left the place under the care of employees who were competent, just not quite as knowledgeable as us. Judging from some of the emails we received from people irate because they came expecting to to find one of us, I guess some customers felt we should have skipped my mother's funeral. Too bad I didn't know how to say "mai pen rai" then.

When we moved here in Nov 2008 we sent non-breakable items like books via the United States Postal Service using their flat rate global priority mail boxes. It costs about $50 for whatever you can cram into one of their standard boxes, which are 6-in x 6-in x 12-in. All came thru in good shape and we weren't charged any duty. The postage costs covered everything, door-to-door. In retrospect, I miss some of the kitchen items I left in the U.S. and wished I'd mailed more stuff because it worked out so well.

We did ship fragile stuff, our china and crystal, using a company that specializes in shipping art, antiques, etc. Total weight just under 100 kilos for several boxes strapped onto one pallet. It was pretty expensive, but everything was insured, tracked all along the way and sent to the CM airport. We had many problems getting it out of customs at the CM airport. We definitely could have bought everything new here for less money, but these are items that have been in the family for a long time.

My recommendation would be to mail anything you're comfortable with mailing.

In previous threads, many posters recommended Vision Center in the Old City, just east of UN Irish Pub. They do prepare simple lenses there on-site, but send more complex ones like bifocals down to Bangkok. They use state-of-the-art equipment for your eye exam and never pressure you into buying high priced frames when you have a perfectly good pair of frames and just want a new prescription. The worst glasses I ever bought were from a Thai chain store and I'll never go to another one again.

Like other bifocal wearers, I've found it helps to have a second pair of specs just for "distance" work. I call them my "walking" glasses but they also come in handy at movies. I'd wear them if I were every stupid enough to drive a motorcycle. I've learned from my older relatives that "progressive" trifocal lenses are a recipe for disaster. My mother had a major arm fracture because she couldn't correctly gage distance while wearing those glasses while walking on ice and snow. Those were U.S.-produced glasses, of course.

I really like the definite line on bifocals. Helps you to figure out which part of the lens you're using. Who cares if they "make you look old". Grey hair, wrinkles, pot belly, etc are going to disclose your age way before anyone notices the lenses on your glasses.

For me part of the fun of living within the western community in Chiang Mai is that so many people are truly great in their various fields. Everyone seems to operate with just a first name and couples are known by just first names (i.e., "Jill of Jack and Jill") so it's very enlightening to google someone once I finally learn their last name.

We have composers, authors, sports heros, film producers, artists, etc, etc, etc, here. Some contribute regularly to this forum.

In this climate, the best turf grasses are propagated vegetatively, not from seed. Your best course is to buy sod, which is readily available. If you need to cover a large area and don't want to spend much money, then break the sod into little clumps and plant those "plugs" about a foot apart.

It would be nice to move this thread back to the topic. Is there a list of the victims? What's the current status of the "driver" who caused all this mayhem? I know some people who live in Lamphun and it would like to get some real information.

I've had the same experience with U.S. and Thai glasses. The only way I'd recommend getting glasses outside Thailand is if someone else (like insurance or your government) were paying for them. I didn't have optical insurance when we lived in the U.S., so I got glasses one time in Thailand during a visit. My U.S. optician was very impressed with the quality and amazed at the price. But, I had the same reaction, too, with my U.S. dentist, cardiologist and hair stylist. Now I'm in Thailand full-time, rather than just visiting every so often. The quality and cost of various medical-related services was a big reason we chose to retire here.

We have a scanner/printer, but the thing is slow, misfeeds paper and seems to eat ink catridges. The lady who runs the copy shop behind the immigration office is so quick and knowledgeable about what needs to be copied, I just show up with my passport and completed forms and she does the rest for just a few baht.

I know that Buddy's is highly regarded, but I've found the attitude of the staff varies considerably with the worst being the people who work the "midnight" shift, which is the time when North Americans are most likely to try to make calls/send faxes back to their home country. The daytime people at Buddy's are pretty good, but that doesn't help when you need to make calls during business hours in North America.

Yeah, it's amazing that some of the laundry shops didn't seem to know Laundry 101 -- i.e. don't mix colors. Also, they'd wash our towels with other stuff and our clothes would be returned clean but with a layer of towel fuzz on Hubby's dockers slacks. We actually sent the towels to a different laundry shop. It's really just easier to do it yourself if you have access to a washing machine. Many apartment and condo buildings have coin operated machines for their residents.

Well, I live on a "quiet" soi in Chiang Mai and here it is, almost 2 am and the "condo restaurant" next door is still full of westerners drinking cheap beer and talking loudly. The good news is they don't play music or karoke at the "restaurant". The bad news is that all the customers at the bar are western and speak English, which means we can understand every word they speak (or rather slur) from our bedroom.

When we rented the place we were told the restaurant "just serves the condo" and "they shut down at midnight" Yeah, when they don't have any customers. At 12:15 am tonight I stuck my head into the place and found it full. I noticed my Thai across-the-street neighbor sticking her head out her door and tapping her watch. We're not the only ones annoyed.

Where is the dead part of Chiang Mai? I'd love to send our next-door "neighbors" there.

Bill, aside from the fact that the Thai Visa search function doesn't accept one letter words like "2", a search using the words "concept rowing machine" yielded some classified ads offering rowing machines for sale, but no information about where one might use one at a public health club in Chiang Mai.

I suggest that the OP wait until he gets settled into his new home and start asking westerners residing in the area where they send their laundry. Ask people who dress like they'd care if it wasn't done properly. We now have a clothes washing machine and I love doing our laundry and ironing. It gives me a chance to download and listen to my favorite NPR radio shows while I iron. Now I just send the sheets to the laundry lady across the street because we don't have a large area to dry sheets.

Back when I sent out laundry, we went thru a big trial-and-error process and had several items stained or ruined. I found it helped if I sorted the laundry prior to giving it to the laundry lady, with instructions about not mixing the dark-colored clothes with the light colored ones.

Also, since I started doing the laundry I've discovered that Hubby has a habit of leaving change in some of the many pockets of his cargo pants. Who knew? Not us, back when the laundry lady washed them!

Do any fitness clubs here have Concept 2 machines? I used this machine at clubs in the U.S. and just love it, but don't have either the space at home or funds to purchase one for myself. Currently I exercise at the Centara Hotel and they don't have one, but I'd be interested in considering other clubs that have this machine.

Yesterday, I got a one-year extension for my O-A retirement visa, a single-entry permit (in case I have to leave Thailand unexpectedly) and did my 90 day report. I noticed that people who came just for their 90 day report were in-and-out like lightening. They probably spent a longer time standing in the copy place line than they did sitting around the immigration waiting room.

I arrived at 8 am, they turned on the ticket machine around 8:20 and all the morning's tickets for extensions were gone by 10:15 - 10:30. I was number 4 and didn't visit an immigration officer until 9:15 because they only had one desk in operation for the one-year extensions for an hour. The officer never asked me a question -- just looked over the bank books, bank letter, checking account numbers, amounts, dates etc. He barely glanced at the residency letter from our condo. The only conversation was when he told me to go copy some pages out of my bank books. Incidentally, I used some "fixed" accounts (certificate of deposits) at Bangkok Bank -- the kind of accounts documented in their orange bank books. I got the bank letter the day before my immigration visit. Also brought our blue bank book, which is a joint account that Hubby and I use for daily living expenses. The officer opened and glanced at that book and gave it back to me right away.

The group in the waiting area was the best groomed, most polite crowd I've seen out there, probably because the early-arrivers are seasoned CM residents. By the time I left at 11 am, the people coming into the door where more clue-less, poorly groomed and some seemed to have a bad attitude about being there. When I left, the poor immigration officer with doorman duty was trying to explain to some woman why she couldn't get a one-year student visa when the school she was attending was in Laos!

Don't count on the cat to know if the snake is safe. All the cat knows is that the snake is moving in a tempting fashion. I, too, believed the old myth that a cat would know if a snake is safe until I found our cats playing with a highly poisonous coral snake when we lived south of Houston. Fortunately, the coral snake, while highly poisonous, isn't aggressive and I got the cats away from the snake in time.

The Dome isn't a condo -- it's a serviced apartment. Everyone I know who has stayed there has been very happy with the place. I've heard no stories about them getting "creative" in a ploy to unproperly keep your deposit. As to electricity charges -- they may have been "estimating" previous charges and did a final reading (actual) when you left. Our electric utility in the U.S. did this some months.