dekestone

I asked about restaurants for Thanksgiving awhile back. I can't seem to find the thread, but several people did recommend Bourbon Street as well.

Here it is: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/American-Tha...er-t305634.html

Several good suggestions. A hotel might be the place if you want to go upscale with Mom and the family. Also, I suggest checking Friday's (20th) BKK Post Real Time section as they will have a list of hotel specials for next week.

Bourbon Street has put the details for their T-Day buffet up on their web site. It's actually two days -- 26th and 27th.

Be sure to click on the menu to see the details. Looks like quite a nice selection plus two types of turkey: traditional roast and 'Souhtern/Cajun style' deep-fried.

I was going to advise people to make reservations but a re-read tells me that there are no resrevations on Thursday -- 'first come, first served'.

http://www.bourbonstbkk.com/thanksgiving_2009.html

The end of the line for the passenger train is Plutaluang, about 10 k from Ban Chang, another 15 or so to Rayong Muang.(Freight trains and tankers go into Map Tha Phut).

There's just one train a day and it takes forever. Another option would be to meet your friends in Aranyapratet as the train does go all the way there and its right on the border. You'd better check often though to make sure the border is open, tho.

Check out the 'Eastern Line' here

http://www.railway.co.th/English/Time_HTML.asp

I don't know about clubs, (but I'd be interested too, it would be nice to go somewhere that isn't playing "Poker Face"), but if you want a good store that has a lot of stuff that is hard to find, go to Tha PraChan.

Thanks for that Meridian. Good cds are tough to find these days.

This will be a full day of great music. topped off by the master, Tommy Emmanuel

http://www.thaiticketmajor.com/concert/tom...anuel09_eng.php

If you've never seen Tommy Emmanuel live, don't miss this chance. Not only is he a great guitarist, he is a tremendous entertainer: funny, personable ... a guy you'd love to have a pint with.

Bangkok Rocks on Soi 19 is OK but everytime I've been it's the same band with the same set list ("Hot Legs"?...oh it must 10:15)

Why not The Saxophone? It's not Sukhumvit (Victory Monument) but it's easily reached by BTS.

Have seen some great deals for hard copy magazines delivered from the UK and USA lately and am wondering if one needs to pay duty on them once they get here. The cover prices are quite high compared to the subscription cost so the duty could really add up in a year if they apply it. What's your experience on magazines delivered to Thailand from overseas?

I had to regretfully cancel my subscription to the Atlantic Monthly (USA); the delivery just got too erratic. Sometimes nothing for months, then two issues would arrive on the same day.

I too would like to know more about these 'great deals'.

Chatuchak market has some magazine stalls back in the area around the subway station that have copies of many magazines, some of them fairly recent. They used to have newspapers, too. Years ago I used to buy the New York Times Sunday edition there -- just a week old!!

Bouron Street, don't know what they charge. Very popular. Madrid on Patpong usually does one. I don't think they charge for the food, just drinks.

For really good quality I would go to the Gibson Fender dealership in Central World. Also, on Petchburi Rd. there is a music store -- don't remember the name of it -- that sells Martins. It's on the other side of the street from Pantip Plaza but closer to the BTS.

And there are many shops that sell good medium range guitars like Wasburn, Ibanez, Yamaha, etc. Just look around any shopping mall.

I thought his composition for the contest was very Satriani-like.

(Hope Cold Play doesn't steal it. )

Can anyone recommend a reliable Luthier in Bangkok ? 

http://jinatuneguitar.freeservers.com/jinatuneguitar.htm

Kind of out of the way over in Thonburi but very good. Graduated from Red Wing Tech. College (Guitar Building/Repair) in Minnesota.

BTW, I've hand carried in 1971 Martin D-28 and a D'Angelico from the US (2 diffferent trips) No problems whatsoever.

Sound is pretty crappy on the live version but here's a nice clean 'at home' version:

This is probably the single best site:

http://www.thaiticketmajor.com/index_eng.php

Good to check it often. They list upcoming shows long before they're mentioned in the newspapers (and sometimes, by the time they're mentioned in the BKK Post, all the best seats are gone!)

There are occasional shows that are not handled by ticket major -- like for example Yamaha guitars sometimes sponsors people to come over. The local guitar shops have posters about those. Overdrive magazine lists upcoming stuff too (metal, rock, blues, jazz, etc.)

Some western food places on a popular street have gone down in quality since their western owner sold out to Thais.

If you mean Soi Ragnam I would agree that the loss of the popular farang restaurant now limits the quality of foreign food in the area, but I still think some of the Thai restaurants / cafes on the soi are excellent. Relaxed places to hang and friendly staff, not expensive and sometimes an interesting flow of people on the street. (But I wouldn't want to live on that soi!)

Would like to see a live music joint though -- something in addition to Saxaphone (maybe not quite as pricey!)

The amnesty deadline has been extended to Oct. 15. The IRS claims 3000 people have come forward seeking amnesty for tax evasion through offshore accounts. That doesn't seem like very many to me, considering UBS alone is going to give up 4500 names and that's only one bank in Switzerland. What about the other Swiss banks? And then there's Caymen Islands, Lichtenstein, etc.

Is offshore tax evasion really dead as they claim?

I'd go with Chatuchak. Haven't seen any dogs in the three years I've been running there.

There are actually three parks in the area -- Rot Fai (Railway) and Queen Sirikit being the others -- and you can easily and safely cross from one to the other.

Great run if you string together all three. Decent running tracks and shaded all the way. The only problem is they allow bicycles in Rot Fai (they go in the opposite direction as the joggers -- or at least they're supposed to!) and on the weekends it gets crowded and very chaotic.

The Swiss government was involved in the negotiations as well, not just UBS, and they are not without leverage seeing as they look after US interests in North Korea and Iran -- not a small matter when you think about the two Korean- Americans recently jailed and released in N. Korea and the three American students currently in an Iranian jail on grounds of trespassing/spying.

The 4500-5000 names actually represents a compromise since the US first insisted on all the (alledgedly) 53,000 names being handed over. Should see more details about the agreement this week.

in their respective country they have a legal obligation(apart from the moral one) to state their real nature, and again, i like NotTheNation but i hate people misleading other people, in whatever field it is applied....

?? In which countries is there a 'legal obligation' to announce you are presenting satire?

NotTheNation, i like your sense of humor but you should put measure in places to clearly identify your "news" as for theyr real nature "satire", now it's a bit of a "dirty business" the way you are presenting it.....

No, never! Sorry, I know it may be difficult for non-native speakers of English and/or those outside the culture to get this humour, but the essence of satire is to mimic exactly the presentation of 'traditional' news media while reporting outrageous content. Just check out the onion http://www.theonion.com/content/index

NotTheNation, nice job, keep it up!

(Do you accept contributions?)

Some of the things I believed was true when I was drinking now seem ridiculous.

That's interesting, Living, can you give some examples?

Oh, and congratulations on your sobriety!

Congratulations tomartoh, you can be a bit smug.

Great accomplishment!

What's the name of the place and how deep it is inside 19 ?

It's called "Bangkok Rocks". If you're coming from Sukhumvit it's on the left hand side, maybe a couple hundred metres into the soi, (before you get to the Honey Hotel).

I've been there twice now -- both on Sat nights -- and caught the same band both times. Thai band, female singer for some songs. They were ok, played some good classic rock, Cream, Stones, etc. Good version of the Stones "It's All Over Now" which my garage band used to do back in ...well, a long time ago lol!

The band knew what they were doing and everyone knew his role, no messing around between numbers. Very professional in that sense.

Sound for the band was good, sound for the in house vdos and music between sets was terrible!

One of the owners introduced himself to me and we had a nice chat. I don't think I'd go so far as to call it upscale or hiso, but maybe I wasn't there late enough to catch that crowd. The owners do want to have a place that focuses on the music and is not dingy and would even attract say, single farang women. I think they can make a go of it. After all, saxophone is packed out every Fri and Sat night and that's out in the boondocks for most farang. I hope they can get a good variety of bands, tho.

Heineken draft was B120, about right for places with live music.

I'd say check it out.

...in Bangkok, I mean.

The deke needs a new look.

Chinos, braces/suspenders, etc., maybe later

Seriously, only a single track across the river?

Double track across the river but only single track at Saphan Taksin station. Don't see how they can run more frequently since they'll still have to wait and take turns unloading and loading at the station. At least the present terminals of all the other lines -- especially the Suk line which will open an extension in the next couple of years -- are double track and won't suffer the same fate.

But man, you think the trains are crowded now at Phrompong or Siam? Wait until they add four or five more stations down Sukhumvit!