Valentine

I cannot believe this saga is still ongoing. The Irishman & a German were flogging those units in the early 90s. It was not long before it came to light the units were being sold to multiple buyers shortly after completion. So it seems it took quite a while before it even got to the courts & still no resolution. Knowing this & previous comments anyone would have to be insane to buy a condo at PP.

What a stupid statment is this! Talking about an "ongoing" investigation to the press - sending them an advanced warning through the media?

They always telegraph well in advance their intentions giving the culprits plenty of time to cover their tracks. Even if some high profile figures are put in jail for life or even given the death penalty I suspect it will not stop the others as they will still consider themselves untouchable. The best way to stop it is to begin at the grassroots level within the local communities. It should be highlighted in schools & some of the soaps as they always garner a large audience.

nothing for the women,ive seen a young women with a baby usualy begging in the night market,just made me think is there no help for these people

For many of them, it's an occupation (they come down from Burma with the express intent of begging). I kid you not.

A lot of them are run by organised gangs.

Uh? one time out of 2 at any shopping center, there's a Thai who throws his shopping cart on the back of my car. Obviously it scratches the paint.

There is not a single day in thailand i have not seen more than 5 thais walking outside and throwing rubbish on the ground when there's garbage bins around.

Every single day i have seen thais peeing on people's house or car.. yes every single out. they stop the motorbike and pee.

Thais are huge vandals, except here its adults unlike in the west where most of the vandalism is made by kids.

Where do you live? I have never seen anyone pee on someone else's home or motorbike but have seen plenty of guys taking a leak on the side of the road, usually in a bushy area. Vandalism & graffiti might be on the rise here but it is certainly nothing like the west. I do agree the locals are pretty hopeless when it comes to rubbish as I often see stuff getting tossed out of cars, buses, back of motorbikes. Homes are generally kept very clean but rubbish outside does not seem of any concern.

Keep smiling helps. Making a local lose face can be dangerous. Outside of my school days the first ever fight I was involved in was with some hood who started it with the excuse "what the f... are you looking at". There are too many here who have guns or access to them. I am surprised there has not been a killing over road rage yet. I would say the majority of murders are due to business or personal disputes followed by loss of face. Lack of imagination, immaturity, bottled up emotions, are also a main cause leading to tragic consequences.

Valentine,

There has been a Murder over road rage that unfortunate German (I think) that was stabbed Rawai side of Chalong Roundabout after he honked his horn at a bike with 3 Thai's.

Later arrested was the Thai who had the Sea Eagles at Kata Viewpoint.

That was not so long ago.

The Security Guard that would not let the thugs into the car park was shot about a week ago.

It is a lot more dangerous than it was when I first arrived so much so that I have moved away from Phuket although I still have a home there and visit a fair bit.My Thai wife could not stand the place and in her defense I can see why she was robbed and raped in our home as have others that do not make the news and the Police did nothing apart from offer brothers land for sale because you feel bad living here now (True).

Yes I remember that now. I think he got stabbed when he stopped at the 7/11. Wonder what happened to the perpetrator? The media never seem to follow up on these types of cases. I have seen some serious road rage with someone in a sedan firing a gun it a motorbike rider just after turning right from Central into Chao Fa. It appeared they were having an altercation while stopped at the lights & the sedan driver had to go like crazy to catch up once the lights changed green.

Another danger signal for murder is the Thai wife in cahoots with boyfriend taking out a large insurance policy on the husband.

IMO Big C in Phuket is well laid out & much better than the layout at Carrefour in Jungceylon.

Keep smiling helps. Making a local lose face can be dangerous. Outside of my school days the first ever fight I was involved in was with some hood who started it with the excuse "what the f... are you looking at". There are too many here who have guns or access to them. I am surprised there has not been a killing over road rage yet. I would say the majority of murders are due to business or personal disputes followed by loss of face. Lack of imagination, immaturity, bottled up emotions, are also a main cause leading to tragic consequences.

Get a real presence here in Thailand? Is 11 years strait, never leaving presence enough for you? Why everyone seems to think I have visa issues is out of my mind-train. I was speaking about the Thai goverment is looking to bring back tourists and giving a 15 day land entry doesn't help that at all. They are just saying "Ok after you have spent 15 days worth of money here you must move on to Cambodia and Laos where they are happy to take your money".

As for the poster that wants evidence as to foriegners rotting in jail, you must have not read the news lately?

People are in jail for a reason, both foreigners & Thai. Are they unwanted & rotting away, who knows? The two high profile foreigners who were jailed in connection with the red riots have both been released & deported.

If I remember correctly the 15 day visa was designed to try & stop people who were working here illegally. The government has done much to promote tourism including issuing free visas.

If you really want to go after Abhisit then perhaps you should look at the corruption within his cabinet, however I feel he is doing a better job than previous PMs who were actually at the forefront of corruption.

Xmas menu from the Watermark looks quite interesting although it does include roast turkey stuffed with macadamia. They have a very good chef who used to be at Les Anges.

3 days ago on bypass road.

Driving 100km/h right lane, keep 2 car distance from the guy in front.. there's a line of us going same speed untill the lights probably. So hopping places wont make u get anywhere much faster than 30secs ahead. Left lane was going maybe 60.

First truck tailgates me 1min.. i obviously do everything i can to keep him behind me as i dont want an accident in front of me. After a while he decides to cut me off on the right.. Yes in the Drain/hole.. HALF his tire on the right is not touching the ground, he almost fell.. He did the same thing with the next 3 cars in front of me..

Pissed off i think it cant happen again.. turns out 3 cars after him did the exact same thing, almost all dying there.

And obviously at the light they all went left to get in front of everyone.. and i was again, in front of them just waiting my turn and not letting anyone pass in front of me at the acceleration on the right lane..

Cant wait to move to pattaya.. no bypass/chaofa

Up until a few years ago I would occasionally pass slow vehicles on the bypass road via the left hand shoulder until one day I was driving behind a trailer truck when a pick up passed me at great speed on the left shoulder. Once he got beside the truck he started fish tailing, next thing he was off over the side flying through underbrush until eventually he came to a rapid halt against a tree. I still see mini buses passing on the inside or outside shoulders & many of them tailgate. I don't feel they are psycho but under a lot of stress to complete as many runs as they can.

I have never seen the police pull anyone over for dangerous driving behaviour but in the case of the mini buses they should not only penalise the driver but the owner as well. The authorities could also look at changing how the mini bus drivers are compensated so they do not have to drive like maniacs.

And stupid me thought this news was going to be about banning cars, collecting trash, making more green spaces...

My thoughts exactly. How about making it so that there will be less need for all those upgraded medical facilities. Cart before the horse springs to mind.

  At first i was planning to spend my X-mas in Laos (which i postponed eventually, enough to see and do within these borders) and i was a bit confused how i would deal with the current single entry visa.

After asking around i heard that you can go to Immigration and pay around 1200 baht (maybe some more) for being able to go out and come back again without screwing up the visa.

No idea about getting a multiple though,..except for emergencies i am not planning to leave. Guess its a matter of $$ at  the immigration off.

.....i should also open an Immigration other govt office...so much money to be made with it

If you wish to travel out of the country during the period of your one year visa you simply go to immigration & get a re entry permit which is available as single or multi re entry. It is a fixed price which is written on the wall but of course multi will be more expensive. Regarding the 90 day reporting you generally do not need any documents other than your passport & only takes a couple of minutes if they are not busy.

Of course things have improved greatly for farang since Mr Abhasit's been in power..........

Tell us 1 thing that has improved for us farangs please?

1. Is it the great rule that farang can only enter Thailand for 15 days now instead of the 30 days before?
2. Is it that farangs are rotting in Thai jails like un-wanted dogs while the government worries about where Thaxsin is going to be next?
3. Is it that Abhasit has made the south a great place for tourists to visit now if they want to get shot and killed?
4. Is it that Tourism has become the the lowest issue on his mind right now (attracting tourists)
5. Is it because of the Media and website blockages that most of us Foreigners rely on?
6. Is it because the Abhisit government has brung Thailand into a 3rd world state again so that there is now a reccession and the only way the Thai's make up for the loss of money now is by double charging us?

Tell us how this wonderful government has made it better please?

1. Only 15 days if you enter overland otherwise normally 30 days.

2. Evidence please.

3. Terrorism in the south increased greatly during Mr T's tenure.

4. Tourists are currently arriving in record numbers.

5. Media freedoms were already under threat during the previous government of Mr T who threatened many with lawsuits including a female journo whom he sued for 2 billion.

6. The Thai economy is showing better growth rates than most throughout the world.

So what planet or alternate universe are you living in or are you just a genuine troll.

The most beautiful & serene festival, Loy Krathong, will eventually suffer the same fate as others in that everything will get taken to the extreme as it is already becoming noisy & boisterous. There is no excuse for not enforcing the law when it comes to public safety. Fire lanterns almost grazing the heads of diners & setting a tree alight shows a callous disregard for others. I shudder to think what might happen if a fire lantern got sucked into a jet turbine. BTW I love the fire lanterns as long as they are handled with care.

I am not a technical person either but i have found by decreasing the bass and increasing the

treble it makes the speech easier to hear against the background noise in movies etc

Okay all the menu is in Thai so will have to go back and find out how to change to English, have found in the English booklet a section on sound, there is a voice enhancement option but again cant get to it because all in Thai.

Living where we are Thai is always the default setting for remotes & I am sure you will be able to easily navigate once you have it changed to English. Did you buy the Philips wall system home theatre? I have heard it in Home Pro & it sounds pretty good. Is the Toshiba LED or LCD? I hope to buy a new TV soon but generally I favour Samsung or Philips when it comes to LED.

Gonna be a xmas BBQ at The Bar On The Rocks on Surin beach...you're welcome to bbq native animals if you wish.

Twin Palms always does an impressive xmas dinner with alcohol included for around 2000 baht. I'm sure it will be on their website

I am glad to see someone offering some other choices for Xmas dinner. Seems like scuba & PST have an interest in the two places they always promote on this & other posts. Not saying they are not good places to eat but a pattern is emerging. I just had an email from Da Vincis for their Xmas dinner, not a turkey in sight, but still not impressed with their menu.

The road which it will connect to, between the two Chao Fas, will need to be resurfaced as it is getting badly cut up.

Only 15 years to get this organized. With all the land encroachment & ensuing land rights issues it is no wonder that Phuket will grind to a halt within a few years in that we can look forward to Bangkok like gridlocks on our roads. Central intersection (why on earth would anyone want to buy a condo on this corner) & Samkong T junction (it is possible this will be improved as I see a couple of places on the corner have been knocked down) are a couple that immediately spring to mind. Thalang can take ages to get through at times yet it was not that long ago the road through there was widened after many years of haggling over the land.

You better like turkey, thats all they seem to serve here for Xmas dinner.

Maybe you haven't heard, but turkey with stuffing is the traditional Christmas dinner, along with roast ham, meat loaf, sweet potatoes, cranberries, mashed potatoes, veggies and pie for dessert, all of which will be offered at RickNRolls Dec. 25th. It's not in the Bang Tao area, but it's worth the trip IMHO. Thanksgiving dinner at Rick's was absolutely fantastic. Best new night spot in Kata. It's on Kata New road between Club Med and The Beach Center, opposite Dome Bungalows.

RickNRolls Music Cafe

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Believe me where i come from turkey is not Christmas dinner, dry bird who wanna eat that for Christmas...

Turkey was never traditional when I was growing up yet our family always had a great day on Xmas. It depends where you come from.

Where in Kata is this Rick and Rolls?

It's on Kata New Road opposite the Club Med,just further up from Solution Bar on the left.

PST.

Ricky just got the new website up. The Christmas menu is on there as well.

RickNRoll

Interested to try the place out but the only opening hours I can see are for the Xmas party "6pm till late" If they are not open during the day then that counts me out. Website did not impress.

So the place with possibly the best burger in Phuket, Surf n Turf, has closed after only a brief stint. Hopefully they will continue to make them at Chillies. Very recently a well known writer of computer self help books & owner of several sandwich shops has stated he plans to do burgers. Wonder if they will be a separate entity or included in his shops? We await with bated breath.

Very distressing for a young person to see. Hope she puts it behind her quickly.

During the day, it's a lovely little drive, and a few nice little places for lunch. I didn't know the place had a bad rep, has there been a lot of incidents there before?

There is hardly anybody living on the island, so what with all the building that's been going on for the last few years, the Burmese camps probably makes up 90% of the islands population, which is probably why the locals slag the place of so much, simply due to their dislike of the Burmese.

Would I be right in thinking that most of the other incidents where Burmese on Burmese as well?

A while back it seemed like a serial killer was on the loose over there as there seemed to be almost monthly murders where a sharpened piece of rebar was the weapon. Police always blamed it on drunken arguments but no one ever owned up to seeing any of the dead in altercations with others. I believe all the dead were Burmese fishermen.

I am sure most homes can be made fairly secure against opportunist burglars but a well planned professional burglary is almost impossible to deter. Coming through the roof is pretty simple & even if one were to lock the hatch cover, which is often in the bathroom, it would still be easy to break through the ceiling especially as most of them are made from gypsum.

A couple of years ago my laptop, an old watch & a small amount of cash was stolen from my home. He knew exactly when there would be nobody at home & easily forced open a small window at the back to gain entry (no security bars & pitiful standard window locks). Did not make any mess apart from throwing a few items of clothes on the floor & luckily did not take the external hard drive which was sitting next to the laptop. Police were quick to respond but failed to find a large screwdriver used to open the window which I found the next morning right under the window. I took the screwdriver to the police station but was told the officer who did the report was out of town & would have to wait for him to come back. When he did return I was informed it was too late to get any fingerprints which I thought was a load of <deleted>. One local computer shop guy said he would inform me if someone came to his shop to sell a computer matching mine.

sorry for the guy and sad about the rings . Im going to build soon and bars and safety locks will be fitted .

Hopefully, you will be able to open those bars from the inside. Fires can happen and it would be unfortunate to be trapped inside.

None of the homes I have seen with security bars have a way to open them. If they did it stands to reason they can also be opened by reaching through from the outside. If they had to be opened with a key then it might be difficult to locate & use during the heat of a fire.

My understanding is you received at least 1 quote (not too expensive IMO) which was direct from the painters themselves & for which the "boss" man added 15% for going out of his way to try & help ensure a good job. The other quote was certainly too high but remember any company who has their own team of workers quite often has to house them, transport to & from the job, pay them even when they don't work otherwise he will lose them. Interested to know what other quotes you had. What happened to the day rate guy?

Jomthong Home Mart on Chao Fa East also have dedicated roofing specialists along with easy to see, transparent roof samples showing exactly how a roof should be done including all the bits & pieces under the tiles.