ysamui

The supply of Schweppes went wrong during the floods and took a long time to re-establish itself. As far as I know there is only one factory and so I suppose if there are any problems with it all production grinds to a halt.

No current shortage of Schweppes in Pattaya though so maybe it's just a Koh Samui distribution problem.

It has been in and out of stock for 5 months here in Samui. I was told that it had something to do with a supply problem with the cans??

I think Samui is one of the last drop off points due to the additional cost involved in shipping it across the water. The profit is higher for Schweppes to sell the limited amount of product closer to their distribution and factory sites.

Tonic Water is as scarce as hens teeth in Koh Samui. Is this the same throughout Thailand?

Not only are the sales of Gin down 90% over the last 5 months.

More importantly, I am being deprived of enjoying one of my favourite drinks.

Does anyone know the real reason for these constant stock shortages of Tonic Water that we are experiencing?

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Tonic Water is as scarce as hens teeth in Koh Samui. Is this the same throughout Thailand?

Not only are the sales of Gin down 90% over the last 5 months.

More importantly, I am being deprived of enjoying one of my favourite drinks.

Does anyone know the real reason for these constant stock shortages of Tonic Water that we are experiencing?

Interesting how Wiki give the population as 50,000 (2008) but cites no reference for that figure. When you go back to DOPA's figure for 2008, you get 30,841...

The population was around this 30,000 figure from 2004 to 2008, but, for some reason, dropped to 18,026 in 2009. Where did nearly 13,000 people go in one year??

I will call those figures B/S.

Yep, they certainly don't gel with anyone's estimates; but they are straight off the Department of Provincial Administration's (DOPA) website.

Of course I could be a total idiot, and present the wrong figures!

The "correct" official figures are here: http://translate.goo...01.html&act=url

8605 Males

9628 Females

18,233 Total

5476 Dwellings.

On a completely unrelated matter: my Thai isn't coming along as well as I thought.

According to this page from the Department of Provincial Administration (DOPA), as at December 2011 (2554), the official population of Samui is 54,113.

http://stat.dopa.go....at/pop53_1.html

(If you see Roman character gibberish instead of Thai script, you will need to manually switch from Western encoding view to the Thai encoding under the View menu of your browser.)

26,452 Males

27,661 Females

54,113

16,773 dwellings. Presumably this number only includes dwellings where the above numbers are registered at, and not any dwellings occupied by unregistered Thais or foreign residents.

Interestingly, the official figure only increased by 317 from December 2010 to December 2011...

Part of the problem according to my wife is that with childen under 18 they are all registered at the same adress as the mother. As the children live with the grandparents, changing her house book would create a problem for the children. There is of course the psychological reason of maintaining the ties to home and family.

With regard to the OP reference to City Status - I do not think Koh Samui has that as it would not qualify under the population density requirement even with a registered population well in excess of 50,000. The status seems to be some sort of typical Thai compromise to resolve the issue. Perhaps someone with better knowledge of this could enlighten us.

Check here:

http://www.thaivisa....us#entry2349275

Part of the problem according to my wife is that with childen under 18 they are all registered at the same adress as the mother. As the children live with the grandparents, changing her house book would create a problem for the children. There is of course the psychological reason of maintaining the ties to home and family.

With regard to the OP reference to City Status - I do not think Koh Samui has that as it would not qualify under the population density requirement even with a registered population well in excess of 50,000. The status seems to be some sort of typical Thai compromise to resolve the issue. Perhaps someone with better knowledge of this could enlighten us.

It would be nice to have some way of getting accurate information. This may seem an insignificant topic to some, but the change from town to city would give Samui a lot more, and it's correct share of the "pot" that is now distributed from Surat Thani.

There are a small number of Thais who are from different provinces who then 'settle' and register in Samui. Unfortunately there are a larger number of Thais who live here who elect to stay 'registered' in their home province. One reason for this is the "I have to go home to vote" syndrome. I am sure that there are other reasons.

Maybe the guys married to 'non-registered' girls can enlighten us?

Bearing in mind that the more Thais that register - the more money that can go to improve the place.

From what I understand the official population of Koh Samui is "a little under 50,000".

This also happens to be the "magical number" that gives Koh Samui autonomy (a lot more money) and the title of "City".

The census is calculated how and when?

I remember being told when I settled here, almost 8 years ago, that the population was "a little under 50,000".

Should I conclude that means there has been zero population growth, no census in that time or some other reason?

That number of course, is the number of Thais born in Samui and still living in Samui. It does not include transient workers, tourists or expats.

If "a little under 50,000" is an accurate census, I would guess the average population, including all of the above, would be around 120,000.

Surely some consideration should be made to adjust Koh Samui's allocation of money to better represent and support the infrastructure required for 120,000 people and not 49,999 people.

There are three different levels of municipalities

thesaban naknakhon (city): More than 50,000 citizens

thesaban mueang (town): More than 10,000 citizens

thesaban tambon (subdistrict municipality): More than 5,000 citizens

You start to say "na" after every sentence

- another beer NA

- she was cute NA

- she is not like all the others NA

- is the buffalo back on all fours NA

Among the various industries I have been involved with was food. A use by date HAS to be attached and this often does not reflect the 'real' date but is used to increase sales.

Yes it does.

Please excuse my ignorance.... How does it increase sales?

Lots of people will throw out any food that is even one day expired. Then they have to go buy more.

No,the greatest trick is what a store in Thailand which is associated with a french store does each and every time.They do a promotion on a certain product,but coincidental that product will be out of stock for the biggest part of the promotion time.The very next day after the promotion ends the shelves are full again.

Among the various industries I have been involved with was food. A use by date HAS to be attached and this often does not reflect the 'real' date but is used to increase sales.

Please excuse my ignorance.... How does it increase sales?

Are you aware of the supermarkets greatest trick?

They (more in days gone by) would put up a sign saying..."Limited stock - Only 2 per customer"

You would see mum, dad, kid 1, kid 2 and kid 3 all with 2 of these specials in the checkout queue.

The grocer was out the back unloading the next pallet load of stock ready to put into the store

Come to think of it nor have I...

I just remembered something I read previously on this topic:

It varies by country and sometimes by product category what this date is called.

It can be an "expiry" date a "use by" date and in some product categories a "best before" date.

The final description "best before" in my opinion leaves the interpretation far to open, and can result in bad product being consumed.

Great for the seller but terrible for the consumer.

I know for a fact that products that are intended to be shipped to overseas markets get a an expiry date from the manufacturer that is different from products that are sold in the local market.Reason is that most products actually would be expired by the time they arrive at the overseas shops.

At the end it are both the same products.

Hello

Is there a chance that date could be the manufacture date ?

That's because different products have different "shelf lives" and it was very confusing for the consumer and retailer to calculate the expiry date.

The manufactured date was more useful for the factories to be able to track down a bad batch of products rather than be relevant information to the consumer.

Come to think of it nor have I...

I just remembered something I read previously on this topic:

It varies by country and sometimes by product category what this date is called.

It can be an "expiry" date a "use by" date and in some product categories a "best before" date.

The final description "best before" in my opinion leaves the interpretation far to open, and can result in bad product being consumed.

Great for the seller but terrible for the consumer.

I could not agree with you more.

If everyone within the supermarket had done their jobs correctly these products would have been on the discounted clearnce table a month prior to the expiry date.

This is not a problem unique to Thailand. It happens in every country and not just in the supermarket industry. Product rotation is a problem in restaurants, hotels, cafes, pubs, corner stores and even within domestic households.

"First in - first out" and/or "last in - last out"

The selling of products close to or past the expiry date is not new to the supermarket industry.

The expiry date is only a guide as to when the product starts to deteriorate and loses quality and/or freshness and/or flavour. No products sold in the supermarket, assuming they have been stored and handled in the correct fashion, will magically turn rancid or sour at the stroke of midnight.

The expiry dates are usually government regulated. I am not certain how the measures for expiry are made in Thailand.

As some of you have pointed out, dried noodles for example will remain eatable for a long time after the expiry date.

Bread will remain eatable and great for toast up to a week after the expiry date, and with no ill effects.

Two classic examples are honey and water. Honey is the only food in the world that never "goes off", yet it has an expiry date of 6-12 months from manufacture. And water also has the same!

Some of these items that are cleared/sold at a discount are a bargain. Others are ok and some I would not touch. The choice is yours. No one is making you buy them. With so many people in the world starving and poor it would be shameful to throw all these products into the waste at midnight every night.

It is up to you!

I've been following this thread with amusement since it started with a whinge from some newcomer who obviously didn't like it there. The way everyone jumped in to condemn them for their "100% illegal" activity - without bothering to find out whether they actually had written, paid and officially signed permits - has been hilarious! One guy writes up a fairly whiny post, with any number of exaggerations in it, and every one is on the warpath!

I actually wanted to jump in to defend the Ark Bar against these baseless unqualified "it's illegal" comments (all of which were based solely on the original whining post, and no first-hand knowledge or observation), and the farcical suggestion that the owners of the Ark Bar should have a little more respect for the king than to "wantonly disregard the one small concession that is asked by the royal family of beachfront owners regarding public access to the beach" (again, based solely on the original whining post, and no first-hand knowledge or observation whatsoever), but the conversation got a little less hysterical after that, and turned to the foreign drinks issue...

I'd like to say, good on you Terry for coming on here to confront these people.

I'm interested now, however, if those unqualified accusations of illegality, and the ridiculous accusation of disrespect for the king and disregard for the royal family, are going to be taken back now; now that it turns out that they do in fact have written, paid and officially signed permits for placing furniture on the beach? Perhaps even apologised for?

Disclaimer: I like the Ark Bar. The Ark Bar was the first place I stayed when I first came to Samui last July, and, had it not been for the fantastic time I had during the two weeks I was there, I probably wouldn't be living in Samui now. It was also the place I stayed for the first two weeks when I moved here in September, before finding that Lamai was more to my taste. Friends & I regularly go there for dinner and/or drinks. I am not being paid for my post.

You might find it hilarious. I am one of the people that posted that & you have to read that in the context of the post as a reply to a query.

Yes it is illegal to block a beach in Thailand., if you have a one off permission great.Ysamui ( Terry ) actually admited that they left a fairly narrow path.

I think the original post & subsequent early replies, which everyone seems to have gravitated away from was in regard to a function re Guinness book of records I believe, Longest Beach Party.

Am I correct there?

I think the complaint was about the beach being blocked & the noise levels. From what was posted it went on for something like 17 days.

Perhaps addressing these initial concerns might alleviate the criticism & we can put this issue to bed.

I've been following this thread with amusement since it started with a whinge from some newcomer who obviously didn't like it there. The way everyone jumped in to condemn them for their "100% illegal" activity - without bothering to find out whether they actually had written, paid and officially signed permits - has been hilarious! One guy writes up a fairly whiny post, with any number of exaggerations in it, and every one is on the warpath!

I actually wanted to jump in to defend the Ark Bar against these baseless unqualified "it's illegal" comments (all of which were based solely on the original whining post, and no first-hand knowledge or observation), and the farcical suggestion that the owners of the Ark Bar should have a little more respect for the king than to "wantonly disregard the one small concession that is asked by the royal family of beachfront owners regarding public access to the beach" (again, based solely on the original whining post, and no first-hand knowledge or observation whatsoever), but the conversation got a little less hysterical after that, and turned to the foreign drinks issue...

I'd like to say, good on you Terry for coming on here to confront these people.

I'm interested now, however, if those unqualified accusations of illegality, and the ridiculous accusation of disrespect for the king and disregard for the royal family, are going to be taken back now; now that it turns out that they do in fact have written, paid and officially signed permits for placing furniture on the beach? Perhaps even apologised for?

Disclaimer: I like the Ark Bar. The Ark Bar was the first place I stayed when I first came to Samui last July, and, had it not been for the fantastic time I had during the two weeks I was there, I probably wouldn't be living in Samui now. It was also the place I stayed for the first two weeks when I moved here in September, before finding that Lamai was more to my taste. Friends & I regularly go there for dinner and/or drinks. I am not being paid for my post.

You might find it hilarious. I am one of the people that posted that & you have to read that in the context of the post as a reply to a query.

Yes it is illegal to block a beach in Thailand., if you have a one off permission great.Ysamui ( Terry ) actually admited that they left a fairly narrow path.

I think the original post & subsequent early replies, which everyone seems to have gravitated away from was in regard to a function re Guinness book of records I believe, Longest Beach Party.

Am I correct there?

I think the complaint was about the beach being blocked & the noise levels. From what was posted it went on for something like 17 days.

Perhaps addressing these initial concerns might alleviate the criticism & we can put this issue to bed.

Please contact me at any time if you have further questions about Ark Bar in general, the music volume levels or any other relevant concern that you want to clarify.

Terry Bouris

anyone tried the japanese burger patties with rice? saw the poster but the oulet in my area doesnt have any

nope i can't find them either

My "other half" came home with one of these a few days ago.

To my shock and horror.... it actually tasted ok!!

It has to be the fresh eggs.

Take them home, boil them, shell them, a couple of slices of buttered toast and lots of salt and pepper.