Valentine

Some of you will have already seen that the annual temple fair at Wat Chalong is well & truly underway. Expect to see traffic delays, especially in the evenings, & if you live close by noise until the wee hours in the morning. The delays cannot be avoided as like most of Phuket there are no real secondary roads which can be used in lieu of the main arteries. Even Chao Fa East can get clogged up by traffic going to the fair.

I met a man the other night who will be leaving town for the week as his home is right near where temporary beer bars have been set up, outside the temple grounds, due to the change in sales of alcohol.

Absolutely, but the biggest scam in Phuket is the old "You so hansum, I love you too much"

It that really a scam, or Thai charm ....

Or is it just business? Thai charm & scam are easily intermingled anyway.

Hello Pagallim,

Thanks for the patience but I am using the internet since 1995. Bought my first PC (hehe, good old Commodore 64, remember?) in 1982. So I am not really a noob and I know where the problem is. ToT just put too many users on one line, so too many users have to share the datastream.

But I think you are right, many users, many different problems. ToT told us three weeks ago there are problems with some telephone numbers here in Phuket. They are not embarrassed conjure up excuses for anything.

Atm they call us every 2 days and ask if the net is better. should be easier to use a Pingplotter to find out by themselfs

anyway, have a great evening and hope in Offseason its better.....just another 2 month to go

Not sure if this will work or if you have tried it already but what about logging some of your speed tests over different days & times & then showing the manager on the 2nd floor of TOT on Chao Fa West. I have the TOT Platinum cyber "service" & it generally operates at around 2,000 down & 300 up. It is quite rare for the service to be down but when it is I use my dial up modem through Loxinfo to check my emails. Obviously this will not be fast enough for online game but it helps in a pinch.

I feel they will be doing well if they manage to get 100,000. One million is pie in the sky stuff.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that 9 of them were murdered in an execution on the border when they could not pay 1,000 Baht each to the hold-up gang.

Didn't see that, do you have a link to back that up?

Do a search on The Nation or the other one as I remember reading about this.

Absolutely, but the biggest scam in Phuket is the old "You so hansum, I love you too much"

The other scams, jetskis, double-pricing etc. pale into insignificance......

555. Good one.

Usually I only see the back number missing while driving but on occasion I have seen that the front plate is in place. To be honest I have no idea on the law regarding the use of number plates but it does seem odd that the regulations would allow any vehicle to be driven without plates regardless of whether they come from out of province or not.

BTW of all the cars I have seen, none of them appear to be new.

Years ago I bought one which was battery operated but cannot remember where but I think it was one of the smaller shops that sell & install household water filters. Try Kee Hin.

At a computer show in Big C, Phuket, I purchased a "Kingston" 16GB USB drive as it was cheaper than the shops downstairs. Turned out that data could be transferred to it but then disappeared or could not open.

"The Burmese would be fined up to 20,000 baht each and repatriated, Lt Col Supaperk said."

Let the negotiations begin as surely the Burmese would not have that much money. The exploitation of the Burmese is quite tragic & it almost seems like they are viewed as sub human.

Fake monks? We get the occasional lone "monk" calling out from the gate & asking for money supposedly to help the temple. I am not sure if this is an authorised procedure for monks to be doing.

Another one is the so called "deaf & dumb" who plonk themselves down at your table while eating in a restaurant & present a card for you to read which basically states their "disability" & asking for a donation. Aside from the fact they are always well dressed & look healthy I find the practice rude & annoying.

A couple of years ago I took my two kids for a holiday in my hometown in NZ. They had never been there & it was a few years since my previous visit. This was one of the best times in my life expereincing familiar landscapes & people through the eyes of my children. There was a distinct feeling of not wanting to come back to Thailand amongst the three of us but there were other issues here which contributed to this.

The car rental company in NZ did deduct money from my credit card for a speeding ticket which I had no idea about but originated from a hidden camera. As great as NZ is there is still far too much to like about Thailand to keep me here.

Thanks for your words but loking at your past stories i wonder wht your interests really are.Your main gripe seems to be the tuks but you in general write a heap of negatives about the place you live.Why? and as for the tukstuk i mean do you ever use them ireckon you dont because you are expat and have a car.Did you yourself have arun in or what.in all honesty it sounds like you and only acouple of others are out to promote negatives and disharmony in the very place you call home.How ironic .My impression is that mabe you are either a very bored oldy with little else to do and passed your use by date or you are just making waves to promote other self interests.

These are my observations from a student ot human behavioural studies, and i found that this forum offers a lot of opportuneties in regards to quirky behaviour patterns.All great for my planned thesis i might add.

I take it you have a big wooden spoon in hand.

Abisit should have made it clear it was only his opinion he was giving, and who gives a toss about that.

He certainly was not speaking for the thai people.

He has no mandate.

He has a perfectly legal mandate as he is an elected politician & was elected by parliament to be PM.

Ah yes, the farang political experts are shocked. What these farang experts don't understand is that all the politicians are corrupt. The Thai people have no choice. They can have a choice of several different corrupt political parties. It's just a way of life here in Thailand. I am always amazed that we have a number of yellow shirt supporters and Thaksin haters.

They are not all corrupt as there are some rare instances of honest ones. Take the case of the Sor Sor guy who refused a 10 million Baht bribe some 20 years ago who now lives in a tin shack & shunned by his relatives for being honest.

What never seases to amaze me here in Thailand are the creative ways of setting up corrupt practices. At least now corruption seems to be getting more attention.

Yesterday morning internet connections were patchy & last night non existant. When I called TOT I was informed by a very tired sounding lady that the whole of Phuket was down. Were there problems with the other providers? BTW it seems OK this morning.

The municipality should place the family in a rental home while this problem is resolved. Phuket is in such dire need of new roads to relieve the burgeoning traffic congestion yet they all seem to get bogged down by endless negotiations. Classic examples are the small plot on Wichit Rd with the water tanks on it, the small section at the start of the road which connects Chao Fa West through to Chao Fa East, the widening of the highway in Thalang, the new dual carriageway in Phuket Town running up from Poonpol Plaza. Now the extension through to Saphan Hin has been put on hold even though the solution of building a bridge type road to allow the water to flow feely has been suggested & what about the parallel road to the airport.

It is almost gridlock in some parts during peak hour & it wont be long before serious gridlock does occur even without an accident.

The municipality is bending over backwards to help a squatter, who is currently on holiday in Bangkok & needs a place to park his van, yet he now refuses to adhere to the original agreement after having free use of land for 20 years. Compassion is an admirable trait especially coming from the authorities yet it seems to be abused by those on the receiving end.

What about one of those "loan groups" I know a friend of my wife joined a group of friends where each person puts money into a pot and then one of the group members get to take the money for a set amount of time paying interest back to the members on the money they borrowed.

I think they all vary in terms of the amounts of money, but I think I remember her talking about it and I believe the group she was in had about 3-4 hundred thousand that could be borrowed.

You may want to ask around to your Thai friends and business associates as usually the groups are "invite only"

These communal funds work well if they last the distance & if you never borrow the money the payout at the end can be quite good. However, I have seen many instances where the borrowed money is not returned & everyone loses their money except the one who has absconded with it. It is completely dependent on the personal trustworthiness of the fund members.

At Tesco Lotus the other day the bill at checkput was Baht 420. I handed over 520 but did not receive any change. I stood there for a moment, she smiled sweetly & was about to serve the next customer when I mentioned there was something wrong. She immediately said "oh yes, 100Baht but you will have to wait until I ring up the next customer". Always be aware of how much money you hand over & always check your change.

I also see quite a few instances, in various establishments, where money is taken but nothing is registered in the till even though it is opened & the money placed inside. In this case the customer is not being scammed but the owner is.

Nothing like a nice civil war to pave the way for democracy - half the population on one side and half on the other. Is that what you mean? In what way is that a solution to Thailand's woes?

Glad to see someone is taking a principled stand and standing up to the Military that are bullying the democracy of Thailand and its people.

But id hate to see this as another excuse for the military to prove what a bunch of mass murderous power thirsty scoundrels they.

IMHO civil war is the only chance for the oppressed Thais to be freed. Let's hope Thaksin succeed in his revolution

You have to be kidding advocating civil war.

There seems to be something in the air as the cable companies which basically pirate DSTV occasionally ge scrambled & lately both movie channels have been replaced with ones which are quite inferior. It would be great to be able to receive a reliable & legitimate service where you have choices to what you want to watch, aside from True which basically does not care what it airs & having to choose one o ftheir packages which invariably contain channels which you will never watch.

blue book for car/green book for bike. its the title. if you dont have it in your name, its not your vehicle. even if you have reciept you have payed it in full

As you can see from KB's comment the blue book is extremely important. If you have a car on finance the finance company will hold the blue book until such time as you clear the finance. I think the procedure is if you buy a 2nd hand car you get the owner to sign a form transferring ownership & you should have that plus the blue book to take to the vehicle registration department where they will then enter your name as the owner. Do not let them say they will take care of it.

Bastogne bakery aka Bake looks like it will be ready for opening soon as the renovations are almost done. The straw roof does not do anything for me although it may be intended to give the place a rustic look which IMO does not work. Anyone hear when it will reopen?

One of the regulars at Woody's computer clinic might take them as I asked the same question at the last meeting.

Shouldn't the title of this thread be "Phuket Gazette Launches The Phuket Gazette Guide for 2010"?

- just in case anyone thinks this is a government published telephone book.

Except I don't think the government publishes telephone books, they all seem to come from the private sector.