Valentine

Years ago a friend of mine left Phuket bound for Singapore. After having a few drinks before departure he forgot about the joint in his pocket & was nicked in Singapore. Spent 3 months in Changi prison for his indiscretion.

Harmless or not, being caught with marijuana or any other drug in your possession will not be treated in the same way as it is "back home".

The music school on the top floor of Big C plus there are several small shops within Phuket Town.

I'm not sure you are right... cuz if you are they surely would be showing premiership soccer... and they don't.. because True visions have the rights to English Prem and not allowed to show..If they were card sharing they would definitely wouldn't care about True Visions.

Well, DSTV carries many EPL games on some of their channels, but the local cable companies are careful not to put those channels onto their network, because if they did True would go after them with a vengeance.

Out of the 7 Supersport channels DSTV has, most cable operators only show 2 or 3, with mainly sports not shown by true anyway!

So it remains a grey area, as long as the local cable companies do not step on true's feet, they get away with it, even if it's not exactly legal! Ever wondered why none of the local cable companies, carry discovery, NaGeo etc? They can easily get it the same way they get SS! or SS2, they just know how to play the game and not upset the big boys!

Last night on cable TV I saw History channel in place of Fashion TV. Some of the sport I watch is on Australia Network which sometimes get scrambled & it takes a while for the cable company to sort it out. If they cannot maintain Super Sport then that will be a big blow. We can complain & bluster all we want but it will not make anyone sit up & take notice as can be seen by True's ludicrous decision to take off BBC E last year & replace it with a really crap channel.

Most of this water is pumped out of old tin mines by the way i have seen them doing it.

Depends on where you live. In rawai most of this water is ground water, in patong it mostly comes from the tin mines.

I understand water ftom old tin mines contain heavy metals & in the past Loch Palm golf course have sold water from their old tin mines to the government water authority.

The DSI have been in Phuket recently investigating companies that have foreign shareholding, own land, & checking for nominee shareholders. I suggest anyone who is in this position make sure all your shareholders are perfectly legit & that the company actually shows it is trading. BTW comapnies with a foreign shareholder now only need a minimum of 2 Thai shareholders.

I have never liked the idea of leasing as 30 years does not secure the land if you wish to pass on to your heirs & if for investment you can only sell it for the remainder of the lease unless the landowner (who may not be the original one) agrees to change it to another 30 years at which time he will no doubt want extra compensation. The 30 +30 +30 is utter nonsense until it has been put to the test in a court of law or proceeds smoothly once the initial 30 years is up. This I have yet to see & can imagine all sorts of squabbles when the times comes.

I don't know who controls which sport channel is being played but often they randomly change them without rhyme or reason. There were times last year when the Twenty/20 cricket was on they always switched as the live games were starting. By changing provider you cannot be sure the same thing wont happen. The only way to be sure is to presure the cable companies to have all the Supersport channels available so their customers can pick & choose for themselves. There are times when all they show is a Supersport logo for hours on end, usually in the mornings while waiting for the technician to wake up.

I do not believe it is a true story about a single person but more like a TV soap. It does highlight many examples of life's hardships though. IMO it is part of the ongoing propoganda campaign which are being run by all sides in this sad & sorry debacle that has become life in Thailand.

It cannot be easy to swerve into a ditch whilst going up a hill heavily laden & slow enough that it is almost stopped. It looks pretty straightforward to me when looking at the photo. When he started rolling back he turned the wheel, the back end of the trailer went the opposite way, where the trailer joins the rig the wheels went into the ditch. I agree his brakes might not have been in good condition but it seems like he took the best option & to say "The driver is a stupid lieing man" is totally out of order.

BTW it seems most of the trucks on this island do not have reliable brakes as can be seen whenever one stops on any kind of rise someone quickly puts something under the wheel to prevent it from rolling away.

For government water there are 3 tiers of pricing although not sure how much for each tier but the price for each is fixed. T1 is the lowest which is what you should be on if living in a private home. It took me years of wondering why our bill appeared so high each month before I knew there was a tier system & realized we were on T3. The water office said this is what the housing estate developer set up & it was a simple process to get changed to T1 which we did.

They are located on the 2nd floor of Central Festival & accross the road in Homeworks which can be accessed by footbridge from the 3rd floor of Central Festival. All taxis, tuk tuks or hotel transport will know how to get there.

It would be interesting to know if the 30 +30 has ever been put to the test. IMO a 30 year lease has less value, from a selling point, as time goes on as you can only transfer the remaining time on the existing lease. If another 30 years is required when selling an existing lease then it must be negotiated with the land owner.

One protection I would always recommend to a foreign buyer is that he has the building permit registered in his name which in turn will make it acceptable with the land office to register the house under his name. I believe the legal term for this is superfecies. However fragile this may be it could give the foreigner some bargaining power with the land owner in the event of lease negotiation.

You can go on all you like about a bunch of protective clauses in a lease such as the land owner, his heirs, or whoever he might sell the land to, having to honour the original lease agreement, goes back to my original point about it being put to the test in a court of law.

Another point is that the various land offices around the country tend to operate as their own personal fiefdom & what works in one province may not necessarily work in another. As for the courts I am unsure that they will feel obliged to follow any legal precedents that may be set in relation to lease cases. The courts are certainly prone to emotion as can be seen from Jimmy's case who was sentenced to a year in jail because he apparently did not show remorse due to not attending the funeral.

The old place was IMO excellent but pricey. Still, worth to go there once in a while for something different.

Do I understand correctly that you thought it less good and more expensive?

The sandwich I ordered was 200 Baht compared to 160 in the old shop. As Gerd said "the ambience sucks".

Another sensationalist, scaremongering headline that does not reflect the article.

He stayed here and ran his resort and is still here.. Reason he went to jail was crossing the tuktuks, he was then set up and had to do time. Thai biz 101.

Can you elaborate? Surely you cannot mean the tuks tuks arranged for the girl to crash into his car & die or did they get involved after the event? I often wondered if someone else was involved because to crash into Jimmy's car would mean she either fell asleep, was under the influence of alcohol/drugs, or forced off the road (someone might have been chasing her). Anyone but a blind man could see the car even late at night. Almost without fail motorcyclists do not travel that close to the edge of the road unless they are on the wrong side of the road.

...mmmm...various states of delusion here, although I would agree that dodging the dogs mess on the path to the Kata viewpoint on a sunny afternoon, listened to the sounds of nearby gunfire being exchanged and the lilting cries of another tourist being robbed, most certainly lends an ambience of ‘je ne sais quoi’...

Just when there was a chain of positive comments along comes Billy.

I went to Bake the other day, aka Belgian Bakery opposite Wat Chalong, & had my favourite ham & egg sandwich which is still good but pricier. It was not a cosy atmosphere as in the old shop & felt quite sterile. There is garden seating. Cake display did not look as enticing as before.

Goerge Orwell would have been proud of the FB thread by the UDD.

Well I have been here for 10 years or so now and I'm still very happy here. It's not without its faults but it's still a mighty fine place to live in my opinion.

Most longer term Western residents that I know are of the same opinion but I guess they don't post on here

Having lived here a long time myself I totally agree. I drive a lot so the traffic bugs me but I have a good stereo in my car & usually someone else to talk to. Back home I could not get a relaxing herbal steam sauna & Thai massage in nice open surroundings which is just one of the many advantages I find living here.

Another in the long list of "amazing" scams.

If they persist with high pricing for entry, F & B, then the owners better be prepared for the long haul with little returns.

I was getting the same when playing a game on FB last week.

I spoke with a rep from SFX last night & he said the coming 3D movies are Alice in Wonderland, starting tomorrow, after which we can expect Shrek & Toy Story so not really much to enthuse about. Avatar, which seems to be the most impressive 3D movie ever to hit the screens, will not be re released in Phuket according to the rep who said it was purely a business decision. He feels that everyone who has already seen the movie will not pay to see it again in 3D. However, he did infer it might possibly return if it did well at the Oscars.

Update RE Avatar 3D in Phuket. This issue is complicated as it may not be SFX's say-so in bringing it here and may be at the discretion of the film's Distributor.

Will continue to lobby for bringing it here.

I assume you have been talking with your ex co worker. I too will continue to lobby for it.

I wish everyone who comments on the legality of elections, legality of government, when was the past election, etc, etc, would do some basic research first. There was an election in 2008, after which a government was formed, & the current PM then elected by parliament. All legal, end of story. If anyone believes the army, 3rd hand, or anyone in the current government were pulling strings then you must believe MR T & his cronies were also doing the same.

I totally agree ... except I did some basic research and couldn't find anything about an election in 2008.

Sorry my mistake. The current PM was elected in Dec 2008, by parliament, after the previous PM resigned. Yet this is still legal as per Thai law & parliamentry procedures. Despite Mr T & his friends claiming to be the champions of democarcy the methods they esposue are far from democratic, for example the blatant harrassment & even deaths of anti reds in Chiang Mai. The "legal fight" will no doubt continue but that should be it. Let justice run its course as it did when Mr T was exonerated of asset concealment. Nobody started throwing grenades about then.

I wish everyone who comments on the legality of elections, legality of government, when was the past election, etc, etc, would do some basic research first. There was an election in 2008, after which a government was formed, & the current PM then elected by parliament. All legal, end of story. If anyone believes the army, 3rd hand, or anyone in the current government were pulling strings then you must believe MR T & his cronies were also doing the same.

As another poster said you take Mr T's comments with a grain of salt as there are countless times in the past when he has promised to do one thing & then reneged on his promise. It seems he is quite willing to go as far as civil war if it will bring him back his power. I believe todays attacks at ATMs in Narithiwat were pre determined & nothing to do with copycat terrorists.