OldAsiaHand

....Prices depend on the materials, in general you get what you pay for. A good quality

suit should be around 7,000 Baht.

Sorry, no. Only at a tourist tailor.

Any tailor in Bangkok worthy of the name charges at the very least B20,000 for a reasonable quality suit professionally made from reasonably good all-wool fabric. Prices can, however, rise much higher than that at the best places. Say B40,000 to B60,000 is not unusual for top fabrics.

Use common sense. What would a good suit off the rack from a name brand retailer cost in the US? At least $500 to $750. Here you can get better fabric custom taiored at roughly the same price. But you're not going to get something similar for half price. Real world economics doesn't work that way.

If you pay B7000 for a suit, you're going to get yourself a $175 suit. Go to Macy's sometime and see what you get for $175. Don't expect anymore than that here.

With a nod and a wink this latest 'Three strikes and you're out' ruling may be largely ignored by immigration staff. Just like the requirements to show 10,000 Baht and an air ticket out. Thailand has a well-documented history of enacting rules and regulations which are not enforced....

Yes, exactly.

I am always amazed at how any proposed change in local laws and regulations which has an impact on expats brings out ranting jailhouse lawyers to fill thread after thread on TV. They read the story in the Post, analyze every word, and parse every phrase like they were writing a brief for the United States Supreme Court in a corporate tax case.

Doesn't anyone ever learn? Thais are constantly announcing laws and regulations that are never applied to anyone. Worse, they are constantly applying so-called laws and regulations to people that were never annonced. They are going to do to you what they feel like from day to day. The fact that the law says, or doesn't say, something couldn't matter less. They have power, you don't. It's just that simple.

'A government not of men, but of laws,' Jefferson called America. Thailand is exactly the opposite: a government not of laws, but of men. If you can't live with that, you're in the wrong place.

same here. I'm on TRUE ADSL 1Mbps.

since yesterday the international speed (to US/EU) is never above 180Kbps (mostly around 100Kbps) down but upload is OK at 450-500Kbps using speedtest.net (to .sg the down speed is average 400Kbps).

opalhort

Same same since yesterday, except that 100kbs is the best I've gotten.

I don't know why you guys are even bothering with customer service. All that's going to happen is you're going to end up pissed off. There is no chance in the world they're going to tell you the truth if they're having a problem. The only choice any of us have is just to wait these things out.

...My biggest concern is that these large stores ship profits out of Thailand back overseas....

Absolutely right. If this keeps up, there will hardly be enough revenue left in the country to pay all the usual bribes. Christ, we'll have government officials begging on the streets of Bangkok and that'll just make the traffic worse!

Our best 'high speed' connections here are so poor (and the speed so variable) that I can't imagine that they would reliabily support real time video at a resolution sufficient to make watching the games much fun.

For example, while I pay for a 1 mb connection, I typically get actual download speeds through True that range from 5-10 kps to, at best, 30-35 kbs. Am I wrong here, or would that result in really piss-poor video with continual lags and skips?

Hey, Buckwheat,

Thanks for the receipe. I'm looking forward to trying it out. It won't be anything like standing on the sidewalk on a hot LA night ordering through the window, but ........

I will be in Bangkok in October and November. Can anyone recommend a good sports bar around Silom where the beer price is reasonable?

it depends on what sports you are interesting in (assuming the point of asking about a sports bar here is watching sports on TV while you knock back a few). UK and European sports are shown at most bars in Thailand. Watching rugby while half-naked girls blow in your ear and hassle you for drinks is a memorable experience. If you're looking for American sports, however, and actually want to watch them while you drink, those places are pretty rare. Bourbon Street in Washington Square is about the only place I know of where you can count on finding American sports on the tube. But it's a long way from Silom and hardly one of our town's premier destinations.

....I then make an almost exact copy of Tommy’s Chili (I make 2 or 3 gallons at time and then freeze it).......

I'd be grateful if you tell me how to make Tommy's chili, too. You don't have their recipe, do you?

I make a pretty good chili, but it's nothing like Tommy's. Man oh man, I'm getting unbearably hungry just thinking about it.

Wow very disturbing information Ilyushin, our very own Guantanamo Bay right here.

Does this have any thing to do with the vilolence in the deep south?

You're not suggesting that the reason for the violence in the south is that the US has imprisoned terrorists on Thai soil, are you? Surely not. Nobody could be that dumb.

Try http://www.asiantigers-thailand.com/.

They're the best and most professional international moving company in Thailand so they may be a bit more than you're looking for, but they're the right place to start.

can you keep a secret?

Obviously not too many folks as it was common knowledge that Hammdi was held in one of those 'back buildings' at U-Tapao for a while...

The rumor was even mentioned a couple of times in the Bangkok Post and they're generally the last to know anything......

NEW AIRPORT FOR BANGKOK

By Andreas Spaeth

.....over the last four years, 13 airlines have withdrawn altogether from Bangkok, primarily due to the high handling charges compared with other hubs in the region. For example, British Airways has moved it hub to Singapore, while Lufthansa has given up its daily flight from Munich since the summer timetable 2006 came into operation.

Stupidity coupled with greed is a fearsome combination.

Worse, they're people who are largely the product of the same non-education system we've all been talking about here. In my experience, you can usually find two common characteristics in all these Thai policy makers. They're dumb and they're smug.

.....My rough guess is that the best Thai students do not become teachers. The faculty of education does not get the best uni students, usually.

And that would also be true without the slightest doubt in the US or the UK or anywhere else I have ever heard of.

The problem in Thailand goes well beyond capable people not wanting to teach. It is a matter of a general lack of interest in and respect for education.

One may not respect education in the US as a cultural value, but at the very least, it is generally respected as the key to status and income through social and economic mobility. That's simply not true in Thailand. There is no social mobility at all here. Neither education nor anything else brings you staus or income. This is a feudal country where you are either born with status and income or you're not. It's not something you can earn, particularly because those at the top of the structure now aren't going to allow you to.

Yes, I know there are a few exceptions. At least I assume there must be, but I don't know a single one.

....Sullivan lived in luxury as he eluded authorities. In Thailand, he married a local woman, his fourth wife, and bought a condominium in the posh beachside neighbourhood of Hua Hin.....

Jeez, the US media really does like to dress up Thai-related stories, don't they? I wonder if the rest of the reporting is any more accurate than this is.

Pretty much spot on, the dude.

There's certainly a 'land's end' aspect to Bangkok for a great many of the foreigners who are drawn here. San Francisco has always had a high suicide rate forexactly the same reason.

People head west, literally or metaphorically, seeking salvation for wasted lives. When all they find there is pretty much the same thing they thought they had left behind, they go off the end of the pier.

RIP

If they DO make it through Bangkok, then there is an extension that leads to the end of the line ... Sihanoukville, Cambodia ... the elephants graveyard .......!

I've never had the slightest indication to go there, but now you have me intrigued. A worse end-of-the-line hole than Bangkok or even (shudder) Pattaya? Man, I got to see that.

Just watching Bob Irwin (Steve's father) being interviewed as I write.

He states there will not be a state funeral because "he was just an ordinary bloke"

Good God, that brings a tear to the eye, don't it?

If we could all be ordinary, the world would certainly be a better place.......

Are there any ???

No, except of course for those who already have them.

Pretty much spot on, the dude.

There's certainly a 'land's end' aspect to Bangkok for a great many of the foreigners who are drawn here. San Francisco has always had a high suicide rate forexactly the same reason.

People head west, literally or metaphorically, seeking salvation for wasted lives. When all they find there is pretty much the same thing they thought they had left behind, they go off the end of the pier.

RIP

Conclusions:

1. Thai friendliness is a hypocritical lie perpetrated on farangs to take their money.

2. Uneducated Thai people are really quite stupid and unable to think.

3. There are some nice Thai people but are far outnumbered by the stupid greedy ones.

Please do not dismiss this as "another anti-Thai diatribe"

Examine it and see if there is any TRUTH.

No chance at all.

TV is the Farang Rak Thai board. Most posters here fly into an uncontrolable frenzy at the slightest suggestion that Thais aren't the greatest people on earth.

You have said a number of things here that are unquestionably true. For that, you will never be forgiven.

You weren't actually all that clear on what you are looking for. A place to meet people but still with a reasonable atmosphere? A little action, but not too much. A place to sit comfortably and quietly with someone to have a drink and a conversation?

If it's the latter, I suggest the bar just off the main lobby of the Landmark Hotel on lower Sukhumvit. Yeah, I know it's not much of a hotel, but the main bar will surprise you. Very comfortable, quiet and relaxing, a really good place for a conversation. If I have to talk business with anyone in that part of town, I go there without fail. No action, no scene, just comfortable chairs and sofas, low level music in the background, and a relaxed atmosphere.

Thai banks do not make reports to the US government. They barely make reports to the Thai government.

What the poster was referring to under the general rubric of 'know your customer rules' is that banks in general have been pushed by many of their home governments to take a variety of steps to make certain they know who they are dealing with. Those steps usually involve clear identification of customers opening new accounts and have little or nothing to do with day-to-day transactions as long as thsoe transactions are routine.

If your shop were in Bangkok, I'd come right over and relieve you of some of that stock, but it isn't, is it?

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QUOTE( @ 2006-09-03 23:50:21) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've been here 35 years, known dozens of cabinet members, and four PM's. How about you, smart guy?

You seem to be so well informed about the local scene, I figure you must really be plugged in, vastly better informed than you tiny number of posts would suggest. I must say it's clever of you to disguise your connections behind such ignorant ranting, however. Very clever indeed. But don't worry. Your secret is safe with me.

Watching you bunch of sweethearts desperately trying to say whatever you figure you're supposed to say to fit into this little Third World rathole is the best show in town. Not an intelligent thought in the lot of you. Come to think of it then, you may have come to the right place after all.

Dark days lie ahead for Thailand and it's people as long as Thaksin hangs onto power and his ill-gotten wealth.

General Prem spoke the TRUTH - good on him!

Where do you people get this garbage? The man sold stock he owned in a public company and complied exactly with the Thai tax code just as the people who are attacking him have complied with it when they have sold stock in a public company. How in the world does that make his wealth 'ill-gotten'?

As for General Prem strutting around in his soldier suit attacking the legitimacy of civil government...well, coup's come in all shapes and sizes, don't they?