OldAsiaHand

No, of course it isn't illegal. As I said above, you just have to apply for and provide a tax payer ID number, either for your business or as individual depending on how the account is held. What's wrong with that?

Still, one wonders, where is the huge increase in local consumer sales needed to support this place going to come from? If it just takes traffic that would have otherwise gone to the Emporium, nothing at all has been accomplished. They need to generate an enormous new revenue stream, sales that wouldn't have been made somewhere else anyway, for the place to make commercial sense. No matter how nice it is, I'm skeptical.......

.....there are 800 satellite TV companies operating in Thailand.

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No, I don't think so.

Anyone can, of course, if they have the technical expertise, install a dish almost anywhere on earth and receive signals from many satellites......if you know the frequencies, the locations of the satellites, and -- most important -- subscribe to each content provider or otherwise have the capacity to descramble their signals. But 800 companies operating in Thailand who can provide such an installation? Not a chance.

Why would one desire a U.S. Bank account anyway?  Whats the big deal?

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Well now, that response sets a high standard for stupidity. Let's see if the rest of the thread can live up to it.

To the original poster: it's a scam. American banks require tax payer ID numbers for new accounts without exception. For an individual, that means a social security number.

The practice here among both sophisticated Thais and foreigners who know the system has always been the same as far as I know. If you are paying by credit card, you sign your bill without adding any additional tip and place about 5% of the total bill into the folder in cash. When you are paying by cash, you leave some small change, but no more than 5% of the total bill.

What makes me angry when I pay by card is that many places add the service charge and then leave the tip blank on your card receipt empty in hopes you are dumb (or drunk) enough to give them even more money. The classy places (such as the Oriental) place the service charge into the tip blank so that there is no way for your to make a mistake and add more. They get a nod of admiration from me for their lack of greed.

There are many, of course, who would say it wasn't even worth the B20 they were charging before, unless of course you have a great many fish to wrap......

A lot of hotels, bars, and restaurants here say they have 'satellite television,' but all that generally means is that they get UBC off the satellite rather than by land-based cable. I've never seen a genuine satellite installation here where the local operator is by-passed entirely and the programming taken directly off each individual feed and then descrambled (although I'm sure they must exist, huh?). I know that Armed Forces Television will carry the Rose Bowl and the other major bowl games, but to access them you have to have a friend in the US Embassy or with one of the US military missions here (the feed is not commercially available anywhere). As a practical matter, if the game's not carried by UBC, you chances of seeing it in Thailand are effectively nil.

To get back to the original question, I checked a week or so ago and at that time there were no bowl games at all listed in UBC's advance schedules. On another board I read a similar inquiry, and a gentleman there insisted that the Rose Bowl and several other bowls were indeed in Star's online schedules covering their ESPN feed. This, however, is Thailand, and UBC frequently does very strange things.

If we get the Rose Bowl live, it will be on at 0800 on 5 January, BUT there's simply no indication that will happen. Still, sometimes UBC carries programs that aren't scheduled; sometimes they schedule programs that aren't carried; and sometimes programming turns up hours (or days) after it is scheduled (or not scheduled). You just never know. Welcome to the Third World.

By the way........Hook 'em Horns.

All of the above posters reflect my own experience. Payments made to customs here are, mostly, bribes, not actual duties in the sense you are thinking of.

Do not use Fed Ex under any circumstances. The local Fed Ex office is as much involved in scamming shippers as is customs. They not only will pass along to you whatever amount customs wants to change, even if there is no rationale behind it whatsoever, I've even had Fed Ex itself solicite a separate bribe from me in return for prompt delivery. When I refused to pay, the shipment 'disappeared' for two weeks then arrived badly damaged. I wrote their US office and documented the conduct of their people here, but was brushed off with a form letter. It seems that no one really wants to know.

Use EMS. It's not a sure route to avoiding duty, but your odds are the best.

There's another thread exactly like this going right now in the Western Food in Thailand Forum immediately above this one. Try http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=53219.

This Mexican food thing is the thread you can't kill, isn't it? It seems to start over every couple of weeks just as if no one had ever asked the question before. Does someone out there keep posting new threads to advertise his favorite Mexican food place? Or are there really so many people who can't figure out how to use the search function?

I never heard of a hotel that wouldn't quite routinely hold the luggage of a departing guest until he's ready to collect it. Just ask them.

I never heard of a hotel that wouldn't quite routinely hold the luggage of a departing guest until he's ready to collect it. Just ask them.

I never heard of a hotel that wouldn't quite routinely hold the luggage of a departing guest until he's ready to collect it. Just ask them.

Revenue Dep. quoted (as expected) between 0-15% depending on the person on the line 

Maybe i let someone go the Rev. Dep. and see what they say....

Peter

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Jeez, why not just believe the one who gives you the most favorable answer, i.e. 0%? Why would you keep shopping for a less favorable answer?

You must know there really is no right answer, so take one you like and stop arguing. Put a memo in your file of when and where you were instructed that no withholding was necessary and act on that. If you're ever challenged, which is unlikely, you butt is covered against bad faith non-payment.

I think many of those hi-so women would secretly prefer to have a farang husband over an asian one, as long as he's hi-so as well.  A luk krueng wouldn't hurt things either.

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Dead on right. I can't count the number of times my wife's friends have asked her to introduce them to a well-educated, socially-presentable foreigner. And, no, having read through the posts on this thread, I don't think I'm going to mention any of you guys to her as likely candidates.........

The ugly truth is that, among those in power, there is very little real support for improving the education system. General education to any reasonable standard would be the death of the feudal-like social structure under which Thailand has always functioned, and it is that structure that is the lynchpin of power in Thailand for the favored few.

Maybe it's just my imagination (or maybe TRUE is just having a good day), but the board does seem to be responding faster and more smoothly since the change over was completed. Anyway, one man's experience.........

Bourbon Street is in Washington Square off Sukhumvit near the Emporium. It's owned by Doug Harrison, a very pleasant American from New Orleans, and has been well known among the Yanks out here for nearly two decades. It's just about the only real American bar and restaurant in Bangkok. Nothing wonderful, but reasonable food and quite congenial whether you're a single or a family. Their Thanksgiving and Christmas buffets in particular really pack in the families who miss down home cooking from the US.

Pay cash, then you avoid all interest charges. 

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That's a very long way from being a useful response to the man's question. Why even bother taking up space with something like that?

Anyway, to the orginal poster, I haven't seen the card you mentioned being offered, but if you have, I suggest you check the fine print very carefully. Anything that sounds too good to be true usually is, and the Central Group in particular has a history of cutting every consumer offer as close as they can ("HUGE 5% DISCOUNT," followed by a two page list of things even this piddling dicount doesn't apply to which naturally includes everything anyone might actually want to buy).

Real breaks for the consumer are as rare as four leaf clovers at Central. What you are describing really doesn't sound right to me.

Strange things happen in cyber-land, 

but when I pull up the thread, your post #2 comes across fine.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...ndpost&p=578628

so at least you know you're not imagining it....

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Okay, I'd bet there's got to be a problem with True.

I checked your link and, sure enough, there's my post. When I go directly to the topic on this board, however, both my post and all the others following it are missing. The topic clearly shows '0' as the number of replies. I cleared myown cache and tried again. Exactly the same result.

As I said before, another local board has a major problem with the caching on True's proxy servers, but I've never noticed any impact here before. I guess that's changing, but I'm not sure what to do about it.

Not specifically in connection with these three posts, but I do that daily regardless. Maybe there's a connection, but.....

Since I use True DSL, I was even wondering if it might have something to do with True's proxy servers and the way their cache works. I know they have played havoc with at least one other board, making log in and posting effectively impossible on it without changing proxy settings.

In the last few days I've had three posts disappear. Not a big deal, but now I'm curious. Has this happened to anyone else?

In each case I posted very early responses to questions, the second post on a thread. The posts were there immediately after I put them up (I'm pretty sure), but the next day they were gone. Nothing was particularly controversial (for example, what's the best freigh service to use to ship furniture out of Bangkok?), so I'm reasonably certain the mods couldn't have removed them.

It just seems very odd. The first time it happened I thought I was imaging it, but now I'm sure I wasn't.

Trust me you have only 3 options

1-Rob at great american rib

2-Tequila reef (pattya) Robs cousin still owns it?

3- Make it yourself There are excellent rawe products if you know which ones to use

Ive tried all the other options they will leave you extremmely disapointed if you are a lover of Mexican food.

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Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. On the other hand, the last couple of times I was in Tequila Reef the food wasn't any better than Bourbon Street's buffet. Without Rob in the kitchen there the food isn't much anymore, although the atmosphere is still pleasant enough.

We've used Transpo International a number of times over the years and have nothing but good things to say about them. They have a lot of embassy and other corporate contracts and they're not cheap, but they're the best. I don't have a Bangkok telephone number, but try Google. They're easy to reach via email and the net.

I have never read a book in my life.  I simply can't.  My eyes get tired very quickly.  But I like learning things from tv.

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And you're PROUD of this?