carriemai

I could be interested in this too.. Just getting into it more seriously..

Out of phuket for a couple of months.. But Phuket is home.

also interested but since my camara was stolen I have to wait until i can afford the nikon D90 i want so that I can get serious.

Just looked at the spec, and it does look serious. Consider though the range of lenses that you want to go with it, and their pricing also.

A poster on the photography forum pointed out that he'd wished he'd realised it's more important to learn how to take photographs with any camera instead of shelling out for an expensive camera in the hope it will make you a better photographer. It doesn't. So get out your box Brownie and do what photography teaches you - LEARNING TO SEE.

Anyone know where to buy quality thatch from in the Nakhon nayok, Korat, Pak Chong, Saraburi areas ??

The 7 baht stuff is to thin and cheaply put together, fine for chicken huts and workers quarters !!

But I am looking for the thicker woven stuff and the ones that use the bug resistant backbone that does not see dust raining down on you all night in 3 months time.

A friend has a supplier, but they cannot supply any for some time, so seeking other sources.

All the thatch along hoghway 33 is poor quality.

Cheers

I'v been trying to source some good quality thatch and came across an ad in last month's baan lae suan magazine. However, they seem to be a franchise company and the contact here in Bangkok, appears to be a franchisee who, after several emails asking for a pricelist, was told he wanted my company profile before he'd deal with me

Gave up with that, but the parent company, palmex international, advertises the product you're looking for - heavy duty thatch, but operate out of Hawaii.

Who is your friend's supplier, and why can they not deliver?

My husband and I rented a beautiful house in Mae Rim, Chiang Mai on the river.....but our landlady is a nightmare. Our lease is for 3 years and we are going into our 2nd. Instead of a deposit, our contract requires that the year's rent to be prepaid in full. Our problem is that now that we have given her the money, 600,000, she wants us to move out asap and if we do she plans to keep the money as a breech of our lease. She refuses to recognize our contract and says she doesn't care. Our differences stem from money, she has manipulated every situation so that we would be paying for more than our fair share. She is building another house on the property and have even gone so far as to have her workers run extension lines to our electricity plugs. When we question her about any of this, she will go into a rage and becomes completely unreasonable. She enters and searches our house when we are not at home and has taken my things without permission.

She continually tries to extort more money by charging me for items provided for the house. Since I have not complied to her demands, she has resorted to violence by written threats and screaming at me, my staff and guests. Within a month, 2 of our pet cats have gone missing. When she heard the maid looking for the cat, she taunted her by yelling repeatedly out of her window "may mii, meow" (no have cat). I suspect that she has something to do with their disappearances. There are many other incidences but they are too numerous to mention. It is as though I am living in a horror movie.

Our house in situated on a 4 rai property which she shares. Besides ours there are 2 other houses. She will live in one and plans to rent out the other one soon. Being in such close proximity to one another does anyone know if a restraining order preventing her from entering our leased property be levied. I am in dire need of help and will welcome your suggestions.

When did you give her the 600k? If this is 'going into' the 2nd year, I'm assuming you've already paid 600k for the first year? Have just you given the landlady a further 600k for the second year? This only matters if there's a large amount of money, and 600k is a huge amount of money to most Thais and me, you've just handed over, and she wants to make life so difficult for you she wants to chance her arm with some other unwary tenant. If, on the other hand, the current year has not yet been paid, move out. I had a similar situation some years ago and left the property, after trashing it.

It's not unusual, or in fact unreasonable, in certain tourist areas for the landlord/lady to ask for 6 months to a year in advance in addition to a two to three month deposit. A potential tenant can turn up and tell you he/she's willing to rent your pool villa for the duration of the high season and move out straight after Christmas leaving you with having to find new tenants at the low season rate and the all the hassle that goes with it. If it's simply some bungalow or flophouse in the burbs, well a month in advance is usually all that's required.

If you have a written Lease, something on paper with both your signatures on it, take it off to a reasonably competent lawyer, or better still, do it the Thai Way, and take it to the local cop shop and lodge a complaint. Paper is everything in Asia. Not just Thailand. And if she's been stealing your stuff, have her for theft too, although probably difficult to prove, but will cast her in a somewhat disparaging light.

As soon as the 'guests' in this country stop rolling over to those of the more unsavory and unscrupulous of the native population, the sooner word will get around we're not all such pussies and they will desist.

Chock dee.

Just quickly, completely forgotten the combination - cntrl+shift+? whatever to change my keyboard over to Thai script. Can someone please refresh? Thanks

I still intend to redo the website myself. I have a Masters in Fine Art, not particularly computer related I know, but at least I have an eye for design and will just have to apply myself to getting a site up which I would not be embarrassed about marketing on the net. I won't ever be dealing with anyone here again.

Thanks everso.

Carriemai, you have gotten some very good information here, so why turn around and tar every TV member with the the same brush. I know for a fact that several members here on TV are talentless regarding web design, while other are extremely skilled.

My guess is that you went with price over substance and paid for your decision. You will find the same range in the web design skill set no matter where you shop for coders.

Taking the approach of retaliating ala,

"The other way is to threaten the bastard with a report to Immigration and set the police on the account holder into which you unwittingly paid the deposit, and lo and behold you get the domain host notify you you've been named as the owner of the site, together with what little godawful work was done on it and pleadings not to 'ruin' the skunk's life. Like I care."

makes you sound petty and childish.

And the suggestion that you will do the site yourself adds to my perception of your naivety. Web pages are about much more than art, especially when it comes to marketing on the net.

People with attitudes like yours piss me off!

'Ere, you're not 'im are yoo? The web designer that isn't? I know he trolls this particular subforum, so think it might be.

As those of you who have troubled to reply constructively, my thanks. Although I have to say, for perhaps the largest expat internet forum in Thailand, there were a dearth of 'recommendations' for alternatives. Why's that do you think?

A special thankyou to wxpwrd. Seriously. You the best. Will pm for honest, intelligent, informative advice, lacking on so many of these subforums. Thanks.

I used to just drive straight at them and when they saw I wasn't going to stop they'd just jump out of the way.

They don't ever try to stop me now.

Be careful dude on day TRIGGER HAPPY Harry maybe on duty,:Headline"Farang Attempted Run down of Police, Police fire in self defense"

Wuss!

I used to just drive straight at them and when they saw I wasn't going to stop they'd just jump out of the way.

They don't ever try to stop me now.

After two weeks of hitting the no 'contact' button on payal's site regarding a 'forgotten' password, have had several emails, all from different names signing themselves off, 'happy to be of service'.

They told me they don't send lost passwords in emails (so how did I get one then? Paypal doesn't exactly keep in touch via snailmail do they?), and to fax a copy of passport and a utility bill. Which I did. Twice.

Another employee of paynotyourpal, then came back and said they couldn't accept the copy passport. (I'd sent them a scanned copy, which they also wouldn't accept, and then ending up shelling out 80 baht per page to fax it).

I opened this account two years ago but never had need of it until now for an ecommerce site.

Can anyone tell me how they received their paypal password, if they 'don't send it in an email' Please.

Thankyou.

PS for the posters who said it's easy to retrieve passwords for email accounts, yeah, I know, but what if it wasn't there ...

There's an ongoing govt infopromo showing some guy beating up a woman in the street and a crowd of onlookers. The infopromo then shows one of the onlookers going to stop the asshol_e hitting her again, and the tagline is along the lines of you must go to the assistance of any woman in such a situation.

This is so prevalent in Thai society it needs to have it's own govt infopromo? Can you imagine the govts in the west feeling the need to put out an infopromo on this?

Of course you should step in you wusses

By the by, pity they don't put out infopromos on bloody littering too ...

The other way is to threaten the bastard with a report to Immigration and set the police on the account holder into which you unwittingly paid the deposit, and lo and behold you get the domain host notify you you've been named as the owner of the site, together with what little godawful work was done on it and pleadings not to 'ruin' the skunk's life. Like I care.

The moral of the story is, yes, register the domain yourself, particularly here in the land of shameless and gettawayable scames. Check every company on whois.net and then take their name/s over to cvgadget and check the docs there. This of course is still not foolproof but a good start.

I still intend to redo the website myself. I have a Masters in Fine Art, not particularly computer related I know, but at least I have an eye for design and will just have to apply myself to getting a site up which I would not be embarrassed about marketing on the net. I won't ever be dealing with anyone here again.

Thanks everso.

[...]

Yes i kind of agree with the jist of your quoting from a year ago when we all know prices of Oil momentarily shot thru the roof and if you quote prices in relation to that period then yes they have gone down significantly, but i cant help feeling that if one used say prices from two years ago then the out come would be conciderably different.

Also you could take these comparisons a little nearer to today and say what has been the general trend over the last4-6 months i remenber not so many months ago the gasoline prices came down to about 23-24 Bht per litre now we are seing them at 32+bht a litre, pointing to an increas in fuel costs for the consumer .

As for subsadies yes the prices for certain consumer related items like water have enabled prices coming down but it is the people who in the end foot the bill for this and the money has to be diverted from other sources i would imagine to pay for this.

The goverment is borowing heavily at the moment and will be faced with huge repayment and interest on top of this for many years,placing a costly burden on the peopel and the tax payer ultimatly ending up in higher prices.

we have seen it recently with the hike in stealth taxes and not so long ago increases in the Electricity prices, i have a feeling the gov knows that they need to do some thing quick because they are going to be burdened soon with huge debt repayment.

Thais are seing this to i live in a small village and get the geneal feeling from what they tell me they see increased prices wheather it be gasoline the Bottled Gas they use for cooking food, Eelectric, and so on.

Food vendors are saying business is getting less customers because thais are staying at home to eat and there is a lot more of those little white stickers covering menus that they use when they increase prices rather than get the whole menu changed.

TB

You're not going to give up, so I don't know why I keep replying.

Gasohol 95 : 2009 - 2008 - 2007 : 28.54 - 35.95 - 26.69

Diesel : 2009 - 2008 - 2007 : 25.39 - 39.04 - 25.34

Yes, Gasohol 95 is now 1.85 baht/litre more expensive than two years ago and diesel is 0.05 baht/litre more expensive. But go on, the crude oil price has been so volatile that sooner or later you're going to come upon a point in time when fuel was cheaper than it is now. (Hint: Try four months ago when crude was at 38 USD/barrel, compared to 68 USD/barrel now.)

I didn't choose my original time periods to prove a point, I chose them because it is customary to compare year-on-year. If you freely choose your comparison points, you can prove anything with (price) statistics.

/ Priceless

You keep quoting the price of gasoline, which has always been an excuse for raising the prices of everything, without prices ever coming down when the price of gasoline does.

I agree with the posters who say this total BS. I shop almost exclusively at my local talad nats at least twice a week and see the prices of absolutely everything rising on each and every visit, with only the various seasonal fruit being 'fire sold' as of course there tends to be a glut when everything comes into season at once and they want to offload it before it rots.

I too wonder how the locals survive. It's truly is bloody disgusting.

I don't think the decline of tourists is good though I do like having room to walk on Sukhumwit. It's bad because it will increase crime and negative feelings towards Farangs even though it's not our fault Thailand has shot itself in the foot repeatedly then moved on to shot itself in the hands and maybe now even head. I posted on another thread I feel quite safe in Bangkok which is true however I don't feel safe at all in Phuket and would seriously question taking a holiday there vs. another safer destination. I do find many friendly and good matured Thai's but they are offset by a lot of aggressive arrogant and possibly dangerous touts harassing and exploiting tourists to an increasing degree. Think about it would you honestly let your old mother walk down most streets in Thailand?

Ah seriously! 'Would you honestly let yer ol' mum walk down most streets in Thailand'

Yer Ol' Mum would most certainly be 10000% safer 'walking down any soi, er street in Thailand'. Day or night, unlike some poor old biddy out on her way home from a night on the lash in Glasgie

How would you know? And the Bottom Of The Barrel seem yet again to be the main respondees to these e're, nudge, wink, wink type of posts. sdfkrs.

Unfortunately, this is happening all over the world.

At the European Community HQ, in Brussels, they nicknamed it "sofa promotion"!

No, unfortunately this is only happening all over the parts of the world that still do not implement and enforce sexual harrassment laws.

Around three months ago, I had a Ma Thai - 100% Thai dog - follow me and my other two dogs home, and wouldn't leave. I let him inside our garden compound, against all my former protestations about having three dogs, 'two's company' and enough, IMHO.

Next morning I found a dead stray cat on the terrace, next to a feed bowl. I love cats and have one myself, so gave Ma Thai the bum's rush. He made such a racket, trying to chew his way through the fence to get back in, I took pity on him and let him in making sure to keep a very close eye on him when our cat was around, making a big fuss of the cat so he'd know the cat was a 'member of the family/pack', and after a couple of days he and the cat were best friends and still are, even to the point of the cat teasing him with going up to get first dibs on the feed bowl whenever he's around.

Dawn's given you very good advice. Bit of patience, only a few days of chaperoning, and you'll have a very nice new pet

Admittedly I've just read the first page of posts, but I love the way everyone's so damned sanguine about this!

Can you imagine if they came round to a house in your home country and asked for any 'foreigners' to go down the local police station for fingerprinting!?

Isn't it enough they make you waste your time and money by making you leave the country every 12 weeks? And for those who have a visa not requiring them to leave, having to report to Immigration every ninety days? For what? How many of those out on the lam are going to do border runs/90 reportings anyway?

Was it Texpat who said 'dance monkey dance'?

Definately register any future domain names yourself next time. If you decide to design the site yourself, you might want to look at a web template site to speed things along. We recommend http://www.perfectory.com to our customers as we have purchased a couple of templates from them ourselves without any issues. Our customers purchase the template and we optimize the site and place the content in the right places for them.

Well yes, thankyou AlarmGuy, but having been burned once, won't be going there again, and particularly through any contacts on Thaivisa.

Why didn't he advertise on Bahtsold doyathink?

I'd already done a little digging on whois.com and net and found out some interesting information about this guy, but not nearly as interesting as that which I found on cvgadget which revealed he's been a major internet scammer since at least 2004, with fingers in many pies, all of which can be viewed on geocities' numerous links to him.

If anyone's interested in avoiding this con artist, including the moderators of this forum who might be persuaded to delete his advertising in the classifieds section of tv, do please pm me.

My wife and I are thinking about a trip up north for a week or so and thought we would stop off in Pai for a nite or two. Can anyone recommend a mid-range place to stay?

I visited Prai (or Pai as it is more commonly known) last year, and I have to say it was a very refreshing change from many of the other tourist centric areas here. The locals, together with the tourists, being amongst those who would rather spend their time in art galleries, book shops, and extremely cheap alternative therapy outlets than propping up a hastily slung together beer bar.

140thb for a one and a half hour hot poltice massage compared to 2,500 thb on Phuket for the exact same treatment, not to mention the myriad international food restaurants serving food of very good quality and also extremely cheap, even with wine.

Or would you prefer it were overrun with middle aged men sporting Beer Chang teeshirts, tattoos and the odd earing? If so there are plenty of alternatives.

I had a website designed by someone advertising in the classifieds section of Thaivisa who is now a month over the time limit advertised on his site. He still hasn't completed the work or published said site, and he's stopped responding to requests to do so.

I see that the domain's been registered together with a business address email, and the site's almost complete, albeit lacking copy and the gallery.

My question is, what can I do to get the little that has been done under my control?

The fact that I have no experience with web designing and css is of course blindingly obvious. I resolve to learn and do it myself, next time.

Thank you all for your constructive help.

I have never thought of this before, but as I have been invited to dinner to 'meet the family' for the first time, is there anything I should take?

In the UK you would maybe take a bottle of wine or something similar. Are there any customs here to observe like that on that first dinner at the parents house?

I am painfully aware of what the meeting itself is for and how to behave, being a helicopter, I have done this several (several?? ) times before, so that is not part of the question.

A fruit basket. Start as you mean to go on.

Hello TV People,

What started as a motorbike helmet for 100 thb a time has now escalated to following me and stating where are your documents, 200thb.Have you registered at the local police station 200thb, if not. I dont even live there only go to visit missus sister.

Its harrassment fr money, and to be honest its all bullshit.

What can be done to stop this, is it worth gettting the legals to make them back off?

Get a faster motorbike than their's and let them eat dust.

So they are not delusional? Just misguided?

If enough people come out to attack the PM, you don't want to call them delusional, do you?

If two weeks later they all believe the PM wasn't in the car they are what - "undeluded"? How about their firm believe in hundreds killed and hidden by the army? It's like UFO cult now. And they are bloody dangerous.

It would only take one channel set up with something akin to editorial independence than those around today and it would become trusted and respected in a minute.

Oh you are so naive.

As soon as your channel exposes someone's lies, that someone would set up another TV station preaching exactly opposite of anything your "trusted" media report. If they got better soaps and more people tune in, pretty they'll have a lot wider following that your "trusted" media would ever have.

Someone recently quoted Hitler - if you make your lie big and simple and repeat it often enough, people will take it as truth. And that guy knew a thing or two about manipulating public opinion.

>>>>

Or just look at Thai PBS - they are as independent as they come, with Jon Ungpakorn on the board, they even reportedly played republican songs on the royal background once, stil no one is watching.

Who is "they?"

So we are to simply give up on freedom as speech as a concept on the basis that no one is interested or that "they" aren't capable of understanding? Well, in the last 2 years we have seen people glued to ASTV for hours, and likewise there we people glued to whatever the red's channel was.

Believe it or not, people are far more interested than you believe so I would support hundreds of sources being available than fewer. I don't believe that the reds channel or ASTV has a monopoly on the truth. Of course a TV channel shouldn't promote civil unrest as people say the red's channel did, but then didn't ASTV campaign for supporters to join up, at various illegal assemblies?

It would actually be better for the level of understanding of the nation if they banned soap operas as opposed to news channels and they were bombarded with hundreds of news channels and opinions.

As long as the majority of the TV news is in the hands of the government, people won't believe it completely. The pathetic statements to classify new channels as "toxic" says it all. I much prefer knowing that Thai PBS is there with no-one watching it, than it to be banned because a given bureaucrat of the day decides he doesn't like it.

I much prefer a world out there with millions of messages being conveyed than having them strained through a government filter.

Whilst I very much agree with the tenor of your post, I would ask that everyone put aside their idea of whatsoever 'illegalities' of the demonstrations by the PAD against Taksin's return, and try very hard to imagine what would have happened if he had?

I believe we have a great deal to be thankful to those who gave up their time and comfort over a period of many months to ensure this DID NOT happen.

way to go GREENPEACE!

good to see some real environmental news on the screen, rather than pseudo green news releases sent out by companies trying to burnish their image.

If Thailand ever gets some decent leaders, and they ever get to the business of governing (instead of incessant internecine squabbling) then I hope upon hope they'll start the long process of cleaning up the environment.

It wouldn't hurt to start a Thai-wide campaign against littering. Something like the 1950's US campaigns "don't be a litterbug" or "Every Litter Bit Hurts" which worked rather well in the States.

Currently, most Thais have zero consciousness about littering (let alone the myriad other ways to despoil the environment). If you don't believe me, take a look at any large outdoor gathering, and see grounds covered in paper and plastic. Or stroll along any beach, and you'll see trash every linear meter - the list of proofs could go on and on.

Way to go Greenpeace. Keep up the good work! Every little bit helps.

Whilst watching an episode of the television series 'Mad Men', I was taken aback by the way a family out on a picnic just shook off all the rubbish from the picnic blanket onto the grass, packed themselves off into their car and left all the paper plates/napkins/soda cans etc let flying and lying about on the lovely parkland.

Mad Men is set around 50 years ago. Could you imagine this happening in the West today?

I've seen Thai Government ads on a range issues from acceptance of other cultures to some guy beating on his wife in the street and everyone just standing by. Why not litter?

Every morning when I take my dogs out for a walk, there they are, out off to work on the back of their honda dreams flinging plastic bags filled with yesterday's rubbish into the trees, along with the pickups dumping the detritus from their building work. E.D.U.C.A.T.I.O.N. And having the local and various government agencies/orbortor/police enforcing fines, other than the 2k baht for dropping a fag but on Silom would be a start. Don't hold your breath