jaideeguy

Ambulances here used to be that the neighbor who had a pick up truck carried the injured to the hospital as I have done before they added a big fleet of ambulances but I think that the old way was better, as I had an elderly neighbor who broke her hip and any movement caused intense pain. We called the ambulance and the 3 stooges showed up and their fumbling in transferring her to the stretcher was so unprofessional that I swore that I would never enter a Thai ambulance.

It was cheap @600thb, but you get what you pay for...........

Not really worried as I have nothing to hide..............just sharing info/rumors that our homes are not sacred and I should have known that a serious post would always bring out the idiots posting their 2 satang. TV has degraded so much over the years from when it used to be a great information sharing site into a bunch of half drunk bored keyboard that slow down the flow of info with their feeble attempts of humor.

If I may get serious a bit more, I would suggest that if anyone gets an uninvited visit from anyone, including the army, then ask for and photograph their IDs as I have heard stories of thugs posing as army patrols to gain entry and later return to clean your place out.

I had a house inspection once, the construction was OK they said ...

Thanks for the useless and not so funny attempt at humor.............

More of the story has come in. In a neighboring community, the army burst into a private residence saying that they were looking for drugs and guns. Normal behavior for martial law, I guess and just sharing what I hear with a grain of salt.

The reason I ask is that my Thai wife just heard from the moo baan caretakers that she heard the army was going to visit in our moo baan and make house inspections, but I have learned to take all that I hear in LOS with a grain of salt.

Hopefully this post won't be removed by the mods and that people will stay on track and keep their opinions to them selves and just share their experiences.

What took the Western powers almost a decade in 2 wars and who knows how many lives lost and money spent and lost will now fall into the hands of a bunch of religious idiots in a few weeks time.

GET THE F____ out!! and let the religious idiots destroy themselves without our help as they would anyway with their crude sticks, stones and not our weapons of war that we left behind.

Wow, we really spread 'stability' every where we go..............

We have one of those single burner gas hobs that uses the mini lpg gas bottles and works better than our gas stove at home. Boils a couple of cups of water in 3 minutes or less. Great for picnics, camping and hotels.

Not much on the north side either that fits your needs. I only know of one set of rented apartments that come equipped with a kitchen. Basically a studio with a kitchen. I can't remember the name of them though, they were only completed about 7 months ago, built by an English guy named Jack and his wife. Anybody know the name of them?

Martina hotel has these small bungalow things though, they might be about your best bet all told.

Thanks Cam, hopefully someone can come up with a contact for those apartments you mention...............

Re: the bungalows at Martina hotel, I didn't see them on their website, but will look again. What I like about bungalows is that most are set up where you can drive up to them and unload your stuff and we always travel with a lot of stuff, sometimes including a small camping gas stove, pan for eggs and toast and most importantly...........coffee.

If the Martina is the recommended choice, then I guess that we will have to go with that.

My distaste for hotels in general is that I like to cook my breakfast in my room, as I've never found a decent hotel breakfast in all of LOS in 13 years.

There is also a good chance that my wife may stay on for a month or more and if that does happen, then she would need a furnished apartment, so I'll expand my search for that.............

any recommendations for that on the north side of the RR tracks??

Planning a trip down to Surin to visit wife's family and I would like to find a furnished rental for a week or more.......

preferably on the north west side of the city and built to western standards, internet, sit down toilet, cooking facilities, and all that good stuff that we older Falangs need for our comfort. We're a family of 4, with 2 well mannered teenage kids, so at least 2 bedrooms are needed.

Any suggestions??

If so, then you can leave me an English speaking contact number by PM and I'll give you a call.

Thanks in advance..............

7/11 and big C sell these Phillips disposable electric razors that give you a good shave for 6 months before the blades wear out and then you throw them away and buy another @ 275THB with 2 AA batteries. I shave while driving and save time and always arrive with a decent smooth shave.

I have a tough beard, so they would probably last someone with a lite beard a lot longer.

I do the same, except with the 550 baht Panasonic foil ones - they hack through thick bear like nothing else..

Where do you buy those Taotoo??

7/11 and big C sell these Phillips disposable electric razors that give you a good shave for 6 months before the blades wear out and then you throw them away and buy another @ 275THB with 2 AA batteries. I shave while driving and save time and always arrive with a decent smooth shave.

I have a tough beard, so they would probably last someone with a lite beard a lot longer.

It's an absurd law to begin with, only requiring the driver and not the passengers to wear the helmet, even if the passengers are 3 or 4 children and/or infants. Really makes me wonder how much the Thais love their children.

Sorry to get serious Gonzo...................

Thai food used to be my favorite, but got burned [by the too much chili] and now my favorite is 'fusion' foods, not limited to any nationality and I now lean towards Mexican, Italian and Jamaican and now find Thai food boring.

Just picked up four 5kilo boxes of the 'farm fresh' butter @ 680thb/kilo and it says on the box '98.4% cream and 1.6% salt' and I just noticed that it had the Halal stamp on the box for what that's worth. Also says that it was manufactured by 'Premier Dairy Products co.ltd' and google didn't find it in a quick search.

Don't want to get involved in the debate on the pros or cons of butter/margarine ...............all I know is that I much prefer the taste of real butter over the artificial butter substitute and this tastes like the real thing to me.

Murni...........flattery will only get you butter, I hope.

CH, take it from Murni, as she is my baking guru and she knows her butter.

CH, Their packaging and facebook page says that they are pure butter and my taste buds confirm it to me and it was priced at less than the margarine . Just spoke with Rob at Sausage King and he's possibly interested in selling it.

PS..........I don't do facebook either, so I had the wife do it.

I just found the 'Home Fresh' facebook page in Thai and had the wife call them and they will be making deliveries up north this weekend, but have no shop outlets with Yok not doing business with them [for who knows why].

They did say that they would meet customer's at a central location and sell direct.................

or if any businesses would like to be a distributer, then they could add a fair profit and be their outlet up here in CM. Would anyone with a centrally located shop want to volunteer to do that? My neighbor and I would like 10kilos and maybe others would like to place orders if anyone can come up with an outlet.

They only speak Thai and their phone contact is 08 1695 5773.

let's make this work!!

The way I see it...............comparing Thai and Phil is that they win with better infrastructure, Romanized language, 2nd language skills, beautiful mixed ethnic blood, fusion foods, and more.

they loose their nationalism [xenophobia], and it becomes harder for them to intergrate into this new globalized world we are living in.

It's a win/loose situation..............but I sure wish I could read Thai script.

A package, or rather large padded envelope with a small electronic device was mailed to me over a month ago and still not delivered. It was a magicjack voip device. Could it be held by the military?? customs?? or is it just inefficiency by the post??

Anyone else experiencing delays or non delivery of items sent from abroad??

Lesson learned..............register all packages.

What nonsense is this? Allowrie ( http://www.kimchuagroup.com/products/butter-spreads ), available is regular salted or unsalted; as well as DOZENS of spread varieties, is butter. Butter. And only Butter.

Sure the company says so on its website so it must be true.

I just looked at the Allowrie Pure Butter in the fridge and it's far from pure - 80% butter oil and the other 20% is "not butter" - 2% salt, 2% milk solids and I'm guessing the rest is water.

Hope you can find some pure butter before anyone dies there jaideeguy...

I am starting to get the shakes and dizzy spells from withdrawal from the real thing. Anyone know where 'Butter is better' gets theirs from??

I used to buy the 'real thing' in the small packs @ 25THB for 275g? and one day a few years ago, the price jumped to 79thb and that's when I started to buy in 5K bulk boxes.

Just read the fine print on all the 5kilo boxes and none were 100% butter and I can taste the difference. Yes, you can find real butter in the small packs @ big Baht, but I have the space to store 5 kilos at a time and refuse to buy small amounts @ 5 times the price of the 5k boxes.

sorry, but butter is better IMHO!!

I made a special trip into Yok for their real 100% butter.....5kilos @ less than 600THB and there was no stock and my wife read a notice saying that they were no longer stocking the real thing. I think the brand name was 'Home Fresh' and it came 5 kilos in a black cardboard box which lasted me for a few months.

They did have the same old fake butter with less than 50% butter and the rest being palm oil and plastics,,,,,,,,,,. Orchid, Alourie, and Angkor brands are NOT butter..........read the ingredients!!

Does anyone know of a source of real butter??

What is keeping me in LOS now is that I spent too much on real estate to walk away from and the market is flat for 2nd hand homes. I know rule #1 is never spend more than you can afford to walk away from and I broke it.

Another reason that I want to return home is that all of a sudden I am 67 years old and there is no healthcare safety net for expats and although medical is cheap here, it is lacking in the quality of the west and as I age, it's going to get more expensive here.

Great country if you're young and in good health and have a small nest egg or income, but not a good country for old people.

When I first moved full time to Asia in my early 40's a guy that later became a best friend and my 'Asia guru' told me that 'you're on your own over here' and truer words have never been spoken. I was quite social then and had a lot of bar buddies that I drifted away from when I realized that they all said the same [negative] things, but with different accents and I quickly became bored with that.

Now, I'm in my late 60's and find myself comfortable at home with my younger family and have little need for interaction with others as it's too much work dealing with locals and aggravating dealing with expats.

My social circle has shrunk to a handful of people that I trust and can carry on a conversation with for more than 10 minutes and I've come to the realization that I AM ON MY OWN!! as my old Asia guru said 25 years ago.