cm96

I really am surprised that all of you have no regard for the law or do you all believe that your western superiority gives you the right to do whatever you want in someone else's country?

I wonder if you have the same feeling for illegal workers in your own country?

JackR (you call me friend then hope that I fall on hard times, with friends like you who needs enemies?)

If I do fall on hard times, I wouldn't stay in a foreign country and be a blight on an already impoverished nation by doing work that should be preserved for the locals.

If it were just a case of blind ignorance, I could easily forgive that, but these touts willfully know that they are breaking the law but feel that they have every right to.

It isn't like they own a business and are competing with other businesses. They are taking work from lower paid people making less than 500 baht a day.

If people like that want to run a business and hire Thais to do it but go along and help with translation or things, that is fine.

Just reeks of desperation something that I haven't seen here until recently.

Ulyses states that he has seen people do this for more than 20 years, but this year is the most that I have seen. I just think that it is sad that people cannot think of better ways to make a living.

Admirable but I'm not sure what Thailand you think you live in. You clearly don't know how much a tour guide would earn in a day. Furthermore if you had any real first-hand knowledge of local workers here you would'nt be blowing your feathers out like a peacock proclaiming the high road.

I have many many friends in manufacturing here as well as one's who own local business's. Chiang Mai workers are widely known to be the worst, laziest workers in all of Thailand, and that's saying something. Nevermind comparing to China or Vietnam. If you have'nt noticed, Vietnam

is kicking Thailand's ass every which way upside down and back and forth in regards to foreign investment. There is a reason. End of rant on that subject.

However, having said that.... If any farang were directly taking food off a local person's dinner table they'd be dealt with quicker than a rabbit get's um..intimate. In my opinion a farang using his initiative & entrepreneurial skills can only improve the locals situation by example & hopefully rubbing off on them.

As far as I have seen, they are a nice bunch and very enthusiastic and also very active. So, nothing wrong with that, they do good deeds, they get together, they have a good time, all harmless stuff. And I don't think that 599 is too expensive, these events do cost a lot of money to organise - sound systems, staff, stage, food, lighting, etc. However, I did have to giggle a bit at the comment about how donating the Thai way was unlike the western way where it is an investment! As far as I see, many of my Thai friends and family do good deeds and donate for the investment in their next life - the karma. And I think that the west is much more known for charitable work than the east. But that is just my perspective.

Quite right. Quintessentially (selfish) Thai behaviour; they would rather donate towards the mystical belief that they will return and hence are HELPING THEMSELVES.

Rather than the "western" way (charitable work) which is helping those who matter: The ones who are living here and now.

Exhibit A: Tipping low salaried waiters at restaurants. Thais pucker up tighter than a snare drum.

This was asked in the Chiang Mai forum with no replies yet, i'm also interested thus posting topic here.Anyone know of a shop specializing in brass light fittings and/or lampshades? There are a ton of lampshade shops but which is the biggest/best for variety? Thanks!

Please PM me if you are native VN speaker & interested to tutor on THB/hour basis. Let me know how much you want and if you have experience tutoring, Thank you.

Some thing is going on, Received an email from them, cc'd to hundreds of presumably past customers;

To. ALL CUSTOMEKS

FROM. XXXXXXX

RIGHT NOW MS.XXXXXXX WHO WORKS

AT XXXX TRAVEL HAVE PROBLEMS.

SHE OWE MONEY FROM SOME CUSTOMERS

IF WHOSE CUSTOMERS PROBLEM PLEASE

CONTRACT AT CHIANGMAI POLICE STATION

THANKS YOU

Lotta horn-dog replies but nothing that speaks to the actual issue which is poor service & bad manners. If you're from the Western world & lived

in Thailand long enough the comparison between quality of service should be glaring back at you from all over the country, not just from the 'best'

italian restaurant in town. The fact that she's the owner's wife does'nt automatically mean she's got any class. More likely just the opposite. She was Thai yes?

That's pretty common behaviour from a Thai woman who thinks she's 'made it'. (treating subbordinates like crap, not valueing customers).

Good day all from Chiang Mai, (where current rains have cleared the usually smokey March air... )

I'm currently looking for manufacturers of Frozen Fruit & Fruit Purees such as Mango, Watermelon, Bannana, Strawberry, Coconut. So far the one's I've talked to don't/wont keep samples of off-season fruits/purees, frozen.

Who are the quality makers of frozen fruit puree for export in Thailand?

I'm also seeking advice on exporting to the U.S. regarding licenses and restrictions from experienced exporters...Raro & others..??

Any advice on the cheapest method to Air-ship frozen goods?

I would appreciate any/all help.

Thanks!!

I tried the search function....nothing came up really. Anyone know where to buy dry ice in Chiang Mai?

Thank you.

Thanks Jon, I live near Tung Hotel rd. and will check it out soon!

Any ideas on good shops for parts and/or work done?

I have a 2001 Honda FTR (the 01's had 249cc engines)

I would like to put a K&N filter & some new parts here & there, which shops

have people tried in the Chiang Mai area?

Thanks.

Correction about that shop: I just remembered it was not B650/sqm, but rather, he had a display up of 40 x 80 cm slabs and the

light colored China stuff was B650 for that size, the Thai light colored stuff was about B1300 for the same size pieces 40x80cm That would mean that the Thai stuff was upwards of B2000 /sqm.

Dont wanna get involved in any ridiculous disputes, just reporting what I saw today.

I happened to be out near Global House today and saw that granite shop off Middle Ring Road, they were open so I went in.

They actually do have stuff around B650/sqm but its the China granite which they say is cheaper than the Thai stuff.

Generally the darker/colorful stuff is much more expensive. The 650/sqm stuff was the light colored (not really great looking) China granite.

The Thai light colored stuff started around B1300/sqm.

The cheapest black stuff they had was about B2600/sqm, and thats not naturally dark, its colored.

Apparently the naturally colored stuff lasts longer (the color) but it's B2900 and up per sqm.

They cut the stuff there also and have pricing for that.

The owner speaks fair English. They get their Thai granite from Tak also.

He says farangs like to buy at his shop because he does'nt charge extra (compared to Thais).

Thanks for both excellent & speedy replies!!!

This may seem like a weird topic....But, my wife AND local Vet in the Nonghoy area insist that Thai dogs (not purebreds but local mixed typical Thai looking dogs) dont need any treatment for heartworms. I'm finding it hard to believe for some reason as usually in western countries the Vet will check blood & prescribe pills or injections. I believe the heartworms are caused by mosquitoes.

I love my dog and dont want it to get heartworm problems. Does anyone have experience in this matter and can recommend a Vet?

Thanks.

"I don't know for sure but if Thailand is anything like the rest of the world then every broadband package has a limit. It is either advertised, or it is built into the 'Fair Use Policy'.

In the UK, providers claiming to offer unlimited broadband seem to set their fair use policy limit at somewhere in the region of 40g, but it is all built into the Ts and Cs, and nobody ever really knows for sure what the actual limit is when a fair use policy is in action. If a broadband supplier fails to mention either a set limit, or advertise itself as unlimited, you should be sure to look carefully at the small print, as they are likely to be trying to hide a small download allowance. This doesn't happen in the UK, but it might in Thailand, I don't know.

But to give you an idea of how much downloading that actually is, 40g roughly translates to around 8000 music tracks, or 55 full length, high quality movies. Youtube videos are of less quality, so on a 40g limit you could budget for at least 100 hours of youtube. No need to worry if you leave something running. Even the most hardened pornography addict would struggle to watch online video for four hours every single day. The only people who need worry are those who need to download a lot for business, and online gamers.

For the average keen internet user, who checks his emails, the news, downloads some music, a movie or two, plays some games, watches youtube, posts on forums etc., i would say 10g is ample."

Well... because I dont subscribe to any cable/satellite tv service because I feel a very large percentage of the programming is crap anyway, I subscribe to a usenet service to download all my multimedia entertainment. I prefer this method as I can pick and choose WHAT I want to watch and watch it WHEN I have time. You can find tons of mainstream shows on usenet. I easily download 20 gigs per month and the usenet service I use has the option of up to 100 gigs per month. To give you an example, a sporting event like 1 basketball game can be 1.5 gigs alone.

I've been using plain old TTT/Maxnet (previously maxnet, now BBB or something), cheapest option, B500/month, and I've been downloading 20 gigs/month at least with no problems or 'limit'.

I have a question for the 3G subscribers; (maybe a dumb question, sorry). From the brochure it seems like we choose how much digital information we think we

will need to download in a month period. (From 500 MB at B100, to 30 GB at B1500) Am I understanding this correctly? Would'nt streaming video use up your

Gigs pretty fast? If I'm understanding it correctly once you exceed your allowance they charge you B1 per Megabyte downloaded? Not including vat either...

Is it just me or does this seem a very strange method seeing as the other so called Broadband suppliers have no limit on downloads?

Would'nt a streaming video left on all night (for example if you fell asleep and forgot to close the connection) easily exceed 10 or 20 gigs in a single night?

I definitely could be misunderstanding this, so please feel free to correct me....Thank you.

I'm looking for a factory making high quality rubber boots for extreme cold weather, ice fishing to be exact.

I've looked in the Thai Yellow Pages and Thai Business Pages without any luck.

Just thought I'd try, anyone know of anything?

Thanks.

The most interesting (revealing) statement was something along the lines of :

PAAGAI- "And the real point is they aren't discriminating against the colour of your skin, but against the stereotype they percieve goes with that skin colour. Show them you don't match that stereotype and you usually don't have to pay. Sweet" ....UM... ?

I'm not sure which Thailand you've been living in PAAGAI, but if you took a poll among Thais AND farangs, i'm pretty sure an overwhelming majority would

say that the stereotype of farangs is that 'they are all RICH'. ESPECIALLY amongst the 'pauper and modest Thais', of whom you claim to know so much about...

So how is proving that you ARE'NT RICH, going to get you past the cover charge??...

Do you just show up in tattered clothing and the Thais feel pity and usher you in??........ "Sweet"

I can totally understand a business needing to cover costs and I'm not opposed to cover charges in anyway. I just think it's handled in a idiotic way here sometimes. It would'nt take much brains/imagination to come up with solutions that would appease everyone. Some have been mentioned here, ID's?, how about different levels of cover charge? 50Bt minimum (If the ANYONE is'nt willing/cant pay this, does the club really want them in anyway?), 150Bt ticket (1 drink), 300Bt (2 drinks)...Instead of 'farang only cover' which just invites resentment.

I think some people lose their minds when they come here. My point was that since Paagai is using this thread just to call some farangs 'cheap charlies' for not just paying up with the farangs only cover charge, I would point out that some Thais of means are also 'cheap charlies'.

And Gatorhead, I think it's obvious to everyone that we can 'just go somewhere else'.

But neither of you are addressing the point of this thread.

So Do you? or Don't you? Think it's right to slap a cover charge on any and all farangs without giving a reason?

Imagine a club somewhere in north america, or australia, or canada or whereever adopting the policy of "All Thai people must pay cover charge", or "anyone who looks asian must pay cover charge" (with no reason given).

Regardless of how YOU feel about it, how do you think the Thai or Asian people would feel about it?

Do you think they would not even care enough to gripe about it on an anonymous forum? Do you think they would just bendover and pay it without questioning the policy? Do you think the club might be looking at lawsuits?

And yes, someone's deep thinking girlfriend might just declare; "if they dont like it, they should just get out". And by the way, are you saying because your Thai gf said this, that she speaks for most Thais?

In other words, If they dont like paying the 'farang only' cover charge, they should just get the hel_l out of the country?

Her statement pretty much legitimizes my point about the attitude of businesses that adopt the 'farang only cover charge'.

g-head

the thais that can afford the latest nokias, hair-styles, souped up cars etc are NOT of modest means. i think you might be suprised just how

wealthy some thais are here. for paagay to call him a cheap charlie for bringing his own bottle aint right. he's right, the thais do it all the time,

the same thais that roll up in expensive cars, so who's the cheap charlie?

btw most of my friends here are thais, i have hardly any farang friends nor am i seeking any out.

i see wealthy thais being charged 25% of what many broke-ass farangs get charged all the time here. the double pricing game here is simply

open hunting season on farangs ie ANYONE WITH WHITE SKIN irregardless of their visa/employment status here.

HTWOOD is right. They dont even make an attempt to make it a non-racial issue. At least in Hawaii they ask you for a state ID, if you have one, you

pay the local rate. Here they just cant be bothered with doing that, guess why? it only leads to less money,not more, and who gives a flying Fk what any farang customer thinks anyway? Business, thai style.

Maybe he brought real whiskey not the cheap ass 100 Pipers the TRUE CHEAP CHARLIES in this country drink. HELLO? 8 Thais standing around a table

sharing 1 bottle of 200 baht 100 PIPERS. puke puke. Oh but they got the newest Nokia phone and kung <deleted> haircut, so they're cool.

"Alcohol helps"

Cash wont just help. It will be required. So how is this place an eye-opening, unusual 'find' ?

I guess it's just unexpected in that location.

100% ABSOLUTELY I would love it!!

I find the ready made food offerings at all the supermarkets here pretty lame.

At the moment I make my own sandwiches with whole wheat bread, cheese, salad and occasionally meat but even that is a fuss.

Amazing sand. is just okay. More convenient if I can pickup at Rimping and buy my fruits etc at the same time.

Btw, Sansai Sam, which club was yours in HK? I lived there for quite awhile and did my share of clubbing, those were the (crazy) days!

Wanchai via LKF was a steady circuit for years.

"I do enjoy Thailand but I look in the mirror each day and I see the farang looking back at me. I am here at the pleasure of the Thai government and its people and that privledge can be revoked in a heart beat. No worries, I never bought anything here more expensive than my little Honda CZi Mini Beast so I can be outa here in a few hours with no regrets. I understand that some folks have put down more permanent roots and I can appreciate their anxiety, but our purchases here are voluntary. You pays your money and you takes your chances."

Yes this is a very healthy attitude. Unfortunately very rare among westerners in Asia.

I'll give you the contrast. I lived in both HK & SG for more than 5 years each. Both are full of arrogant Brits who get their visas grandfathered in (HK), and treat the locals like absolute shit. Seen it countless times. Also have known more than a couple who've come to Thailand and thrown forth the same attitude only to have their noses literally broken on the floor.

Your ex wifes 'new man' did'nt bring those kids into this world, you did. DOH!

They could break up tomorrow and YOUR kids still got hungry mouths.

I dont like stereotypes and inconsistent immigration rules either, however those words exist for a reason.

Exhibit A Mike, Irresponsible african american father comes to Thailand to be 'off the hook' for child support, looking for bars to hang out in.

Exhibit B Thai Immigration making it tougher to get visas.