SKguy

A "haze".....oh really! Would a haze cause thousands of people to seek medical attention in Chiang Mai?

We are wearing face masks inside and outside the house, our eyes are red and very sore, we are coughing up phlegm continuously, many people are having to take antibiotics for chest infections. They darn well need to get out of their airconditioned offices and face reality!

‘the wai’ or the Thai greeting - a show of respect, as well as the friendly nature of the Thai people, form part of “Thainess”

If the true meaning of "respect" and "friendly nature" was fully understood, the habit of describing tourists/retirees as "farangs" and "aliens" would no longer prevail.

p.s. I love living in Thailand and do not consider myself a whinger just because I make the above observation.

Dodgy.

More aspects than 1 make these budget airlines dodgy......meanwhile dummies keep linng up to fly with them....you save a bit of cash though.

I don't think Air Asia is dodgy. Apart from this accident it has quite a good safety record. In fact, a better safety record than some non-budget airlines. Just look up the stats.

I only ever had one experience of dealing with Air Asia and that will surely be the last one.

In the UK, things have gone to ridiculous extremes in the attempts to pacify and please muslims.

We should bare the truth of everything so the world knows what is really going on. Especially ISIS. Why do I have to search the internet to find out what is going on. ?.

Of course it would lead to war on the streets so we will shelve that plan for the time being.

You are so right! The likes of Cameron, Blair, Livingstone, Simon Hughes have all expressed their eagerness to see a muslim prime minister installed at Number 10. It appears that the British public will obediently toe the line.....

Now you know why people keep smiling in this country.

Do they?
 

please don't primitivize what I say. For sure nobody gave order to Branson, it's just carefully manipulated media mainstream which forms people's outlook. Try to speak something against it on American or British TV and you will be ostracized and stigmatized as "fascist" "racist" "sexist" "ageist" or something. Amercian discourse mongers developed dozens of terms to neutralize any ideological opponent...

for people like you interference in internal affairs of independent nations became normal, that's why you don't see anything weird in this article...

How do you expect anyone to accept that what you spout is not primitive?

1) stone is not worse than any other way of execution- electric chair, gas chamber etc

2) why you (or all Western World) should decide what is acceptable and what is not for an INDEPENDENT NATION? Why do you think you know better for them? they didn't ask your advice. I don't understand why US and it's satellites consider themselves responsible for all other world. Nobody gave them any authority. This is a real chauvinism.

how overconfident you must be to really believe in such a mission! oh, my god! or as tolerasts teach us to say: oh my goodness!

Give us all a break.........go and live there yourself!

Absolutely unbelievable in the 21st century. Well done, Sir Richard!

It appears that the presidency of the Chiang Mai Expats Club has recently changed. Does the Club have a constitution and is the president elected?

When are we going to get the song and dance about kosher slaughter then?

ALL inhumane treatment of animals, for whatever reason, is absolutely disgusting and unacceptable.

It is quite staggering that Thailand should be so actively involved in such unspeakable barbarism.

I got involved in a minor accident in 2011 where I was hit by a minibus who was trying to squeeze his way between mine and another car. I was stationary and had been for a minute when he hit me. The result was a four foot long scraping on the minibus from when he tried to squeeze by.

The driver of the minibus called the police to the scene, and the chaos that followed caused the attention of other drivers. Basically, the driver of the minibus wanted money. A lot of money. I got the impression others got interested when they heard the amounts being discussed, and for this reason another driver came forward and claimed I had hit his car. He also wanted money. Soon the police officers decided to have a go; if they're getting money, we're having some as well!

I will not go into detail of the ugly and unfortunate events that followed (though sdk here on TV actually knows the details), but this event triggered a decision to fly my family out of Thailand (which they did within 48 hours), close my business and sell my two houses and leave Thailand. Which I did soon after my business was closed.

I have always wondered what triggers someone to lie, cheat, bend the rules or even use criminal actions to extort money from others, and it's clear that jealousy is a huge factor. In my case, being a farang and driving a new BMW 5-series probably didn't help. In Europe, youngsters are getting robbed of their mobile phones by school kid bullies. Thailand is no different, only here it's grown ups doing the bullying..

I'm glad you left - overreaction thy name is farang

Forethat, I'm appalled that you suffered such disgraceful injustice in Thailand and can quite understand why you decided to leave.

It is April 1st isn't it?

The best gutters in Thailand are installed by Albert and I think they are imported from Scandanvia. The thing about the Thai steel gutters is tat tey are no large enough to cope with the rain and neither do they look very nice. I see these beautifully built houses with these appalling and inefficient gutters. Try Albert and PM me if you want his number, He did mine here and they really are the bees knees, as they say. I think he's called Alti Rain Gutters. Google it.

I followed up your recommendation, Ian, and am very pleased with the results. The website is: http://www.altiraingutters.com/

I am having a house built and was advised against having pvc guttering in this hot climate. Alti Rain Gutters are made from double coated galvanized steel and they actually compliment the look of the house. The installation was not straightforward, due to the angle of the fascia boards and some sharp angles for which special parts had to be designed. Albert, who is well experienced in gutter installation, supervised the entire project and could not be more helpful, assuring me that any future adjustments that might need to be made will be attended to. As well as looking good, I feel confident that these gutters will be longlasting.

I wouldn't touch Air Asia again with a bargepole. I made a booking on their website for a friend (Chiang Mai to Phuket) and an error occured which was proven to be attributable to their website. Upon arrival at CM Airport the following day to check that the payment had been received, it was noted that the wrong date was shown for the flight. The Air Asia staff were not prepared to be of any help whatsoever, despite the problem having arisen due to their faulty website. My friend had to forfeit the cost of the ticket and decided to book a ticket with another carrier. If Air Asia was the only service available, I would personally choose to make the trip overland.

Basically a bribe to get you to the front of the queue. What a sad little country the UK has become.....

Couldn't agree more with you!

CqK, perhaps you could explain what I wrote which you apparently do not consider to be factual?

An awful lot of people seem to be jumping the gun. With Thai politicians, it's par for the course; but the Americans should know better - but then, of course, we have the devil in Iran, an easy and obvious target, particularly where the Israelis are concerned.

Such incompetence as has been witnessed in the conduct of the bombings in India, Georgia, and here, can only be the work of an extremely amateur organisation. Or of an extremely professional one with its own separate agenda, employing amateurs. Hezbollah? Of course. Iran? Quite possibly. And then there is Israel itself . . .

A country that should have long ago been put in its place, Israel continues to be as much a menace to Middle East peace as Iran, Hezbollah, or any other country in the region. And so long as US presidential elections continue to be dictated by appeasement of the Jewish lobby, among others, nothing much is likely to change.

With the incidents over recent years directly attributable to the Israelis - ranging from bombing civilian targets, to assassinations carried out under cover of false passports [something else that seems to have conveniently found its way under the carpet] - Israel is as much a rogue nation as any other in the Middle East . . . but one that is all too well-armed, including nuclear capability; one that has, to date, managed to convince the west - at least, the US - that it's the innocent party, doing nothing more than defending its rights - whilst trampling over those of any that stand in its way; and one that is quite capable of setting events in motion that can then be blamed on another rogue nation.

What a thoroughly biased and one-sided view of the Middle East. Israel has every right to protect her citizens from the actions of those countries or individuals that do not even recognize its right to exist. Is that what you interpret as “trampling over the rights of any that stand in its way”?

I don't recall Israel ever having threatened to use against any country, the nuclear capability you state it possesses.

Yes, there is, as you say, the devil in Iran……the entire world, not just Israel, will be safer as a result of Iran being prevented from obtaining nuclear weapons. Apart from any other consideration, the Iranian regime has a particularly atrocious record on human rights.

The regime in Tehran is, for good reason, hated by the majority of Iranians who voted against it in the fixed election. The international community has very good reason to oppose the nuclear arming of an obviously unstable and terrorising regime that has even denied the Holocaust ever took place.

You conveniently fail to mention the continual rocket attacks, emanating from Gaza, deliberately targeting civilians in Israel. When Israel rightly retaliates, every possible effort is made to avoid civilian casualties, despite Hamas deliberately placing children in harms way.

No country should reasonably be expected to sit idly by whilst its citizens are being threatened by those whose open intention is to annihilate them. Israel is the only stable democracy in the region and the world is a much better place for that.

You are so right.......lets hope the Thai Government will now seek flood defence assistance from the Netherlands in order to mitigate the effects of any future flooding in the country.

If this isn't absolute proof of their bona fide stupidity, nothing is. It's as if they want people to die.

It's starting to look that way...

It's the same old "loss of Face" stupidity. When was the last time a Thai Government

accepted the offer of help from foreign government? If they had called in people from

foreign countries with experience in water management in low lying areas (Netherlands

to name one) many, many years ago, then perhaps this flood may have been less of a

disaster than it is now. The least that could have been done was to make a study of

other countries defenses against flooding and adapted them to suit Thailand.

Yes, I know exactly what you mean, its certain personal items only that I want to send. Thanks

Dont bother you will end up paying to get your belongings and you can buy better furniture here . Just import personal belongings .

Thanks for that recommendation, I think I will need a part container but will check out Seven Seas.

Seven Seas, they will give you boxes and give you a choice of pick up from BKK or delivery. Used them very good and professional. Sorry do not have URL, google them

Thanks, will check them out.

AGS Four Winds has an office in both UK and Thailand http://www.agsmovers...anches/view/133

I'm looking into all possibilities, thanks

Just out of curiosity.

Wouldn't you be better off to find a local English company to handle it for you?

Hi their and i shipped a 20 foot container from uk to chiang mai. and it was not to much of a problem,as someone said why you not contact uk company as they can get the red tape sorted out,When i did this 5 years ago the container arrived bkk and then i got a call from customs in bkk and had to go to the customs office in bkk and if you want more details pm me as somethings i want explain to you how thai system works ??

AGS Four Winds has an office in both UK and Thailand http://www.agsmovers...anches/view/133