bifftastic

Don't worry too much. I suppose the media attention does look a little worrying viewed from abroad but in the (very very few) places they've managed to get a couple of council seats they've been shown up due to lack of policies/ability on anything other than what they're famous for...hating everyone.

There is absolutely NO CHANCE WHATSOEVER of these idiots ever forming anything that remotely resembles a government. If they do stand for parliament the will lose their deposits.

They're riding on the wave of discontent due to the economic circumstances and the feeling amongst working people that they no longer have a political voice (new labour=new tories) The ride will be brief.

A poster just mentioned the Lyceum and that stirred some memories - anyone ever go their free concerts on Friday lunch times back in the late '60's (wishful thinking I suppose)! For three hours on a Friday lunch time you could wander in a sit on the floor and watch/listen to a whole range of acts who wanted to be heard, no charge and there was a decent pint of beer on tap at very reasonable prices, Captain Beefheart, Free, Fairport, Iron Maiden and a whole host of others that became successful in their own rights but alas, I cannot recall all the names. The other venue was a place in Soho where Hendrix and Clapton first teamed up for an amazing impromptu duo (with Ginger Baker et al) and Hendrix declared he couldn't play with that man because his style was weird(!), what was the name of that small club?

Off to take my memory pills and exercise my zimmer now.

Central London Ploytechnic?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/sevenages/event...ams-with-cream/

Don't remember the Lyceum in the 60's (sorry) but I did go there in the earl 80's just before it closed, not sure but I think The Clash gig may have been one of the last ones there! Also saw them play on the roof of Kensington Market too :-)

If the OP is talking about the 'Bangkok period' then it is answered above - good deplomacy, chance, location, ceding territory...

Go back a couple of centuries and you have a land made up of different kingdoms that controlled different areas at different times, and were influenced / controlled / colonized by different people at different times. Obviously the Burmese and the Khymers were the main 'invaders', though often they didn't invade at all, their territories just overlapped into present day Thailand.

Check out the history of the main periods and you will see that they are not a long line of Thai kings as many would like you to believe. Study the buildings, religions and language in more detail to see the heavy influences. For example you might ask yourself why a certain type of building is sometimes called a Chedi, sometimes a Prang and sometimes a Stupa? What are the differences and who might have influenced them?

In the UK we have Roman, Viking, French, Norma + + + influences in our buildings (look at our great Noman buidings), language (Roman numerals) and religion (French and Spanish influences), all on a Celtic (German) background... Thailand is exactly the same.

If you studied; Sukhothai, Lopburi, Ayudthaya and Nakhon Pathom you'd get a good basic idea. The problem is it's not nicely collated for you (as far as I'm aware), and since the 1930's the establishment has heavily pushed a unifom and inaccurate histroy as a nationalistic control mechanism, so you need to do a bit of independant study. It's very interesting and well worth the effort. Thai history has much more variety and depth to offer than the propaganda pushed by the Ministry of Culture offers up...

For Heng: During the 12th century there was a lot of Chinese earthernware coming into Thailand, but the indeginous population didn't show any Chinese qualities in their religion, buildings or traits. Thus, you could presume that the Chinese traders started to come here around the 12th century (perhaps a little before?) and stayed on in dribs and drabs, gradually heading further and further south. Perhaps making their first settlements in Nakhon Sawan as an easy base to trade with various major kingdoms of the time?

Very interesting and informative, Thank you

I would imagine colonisation to mean one sovereign power subjugating and controlling the administration of another for it's own benefit rather than referring to immigration. Population movements wouldn't really constitute colonisation would they? I agree that economic domination is a modern form of colonisation but somehow colonisation implies an intent to do so as in 'we're going to invade that country and run it the same way we run our own' one governments intent to overpower another?

Money Bookers does work as I tried a small transfer just to try it.

My worry is that you upload in GBP but have to withdraw to your Thai bank in Euro. So I wonder how much you lose with exchange rates.

I've only had it uploaded as £'s.

Spoke to Moneybookers yesterday and the told me to have both MB accounts registered in GBP (not applicable if you're sending to your own Thai bank acc. I suppose) then there is a proccess by which you link your bank account to your MB account which involves them sending you a letter with confirmation codes in it, or, they send a dummy deposit to your account with a code in the reference number.

They told me that although their bank deals in Euros because GBP is on their 'list' of currencies there is no fee for that exchange (I'm fairly sure they will make on the rate though) then an email is sent to the recipient MB account and the funds can be withdrawn into the Thai bank acc. which needs to be linked to the MB acc. as described above. The conversion to Thai Baht takes place in your Thai bank and I would assume that different Thai banks have different charges but I'm not sure what kind of transaction the last step would be.

Anyone know?

I've seen/read that MB is one of the cheapest and (after a bit of hassle setting it all up) easiest to use.

Any opinions or corrections on my understanding much appreciated

1st concert Siouxie and the Banshees (somewhere in Buckinghamshire I think?) had some irish band who'd just released their first album as support act, not many people knew who they were...what was their name? oh yes U2! :-)

Most memorable, The Clash at the Lyceum in The Strand

come to Thailand? DJ's who play decent deep house tech/house like Mr C and Dollz at Play Luke vB and Adultnapper, Jay Tripwire et al NOT banging nosebleed trance for a change!

(anyone else starved of decent House Music?)

It is indeed Simon. He was a friend of ours - his family has been informed and his brother is flying out.

So sorry to hear of the death of your friend

Grits are course ground corn. Polenta would be a close equivalent, or a corn gruel (I think that is what it is called in England), but drier. Usually they are served with butter, salt and fresh ground black pepper and are wonderful with eggs and bacon or sausage.

Hope it helps clear it up.

the biscuits sound good but corn gruel? you mean like in Oliver Twist? please sir can I have some more?

In a decent English cafe (pronounced 'caff') if you can still find one! you will get several choices of 'English breakfasts' sausage bacon eggs (fried how you want them not always yolks hard) beans toast or fried bread mushrooms tomatoes a cup of tea that the spoon stands up in and the company of lots of builders who have already done a couple of hours 'work' (unloaded their van)

The variations of these ingredients will usually be displayed on posters and described as breakfasts numbered 1-4 or however many variations you can think of.

For me, it's scrambled eggs on toast with beans and sausage, strong black coffee and orange juice followed by 40 winks in front of the telly :-)

Gawd bless yer eyes mi'lord yer a toff an no mistake!

when i was in Karon i only tried to get anything close to this once...didn't expect the beans...got hot bread swimming around in the water that the 'scrambled' eggs had presumably been cooked in. Ate about half of it (no i don't know why!) from then on i forgot all about having any kind of english food :-)

I don't really eat too much first thing anyway, maybe coffee and oj. then after a bit of a stroll around thai food for lunch.

I reckon a 'full english' is ok for a wet wednesday in november at home but would be too much (for me anyway) in Thailand.

Interesting to see all the different variations on 'American breakfasts' those would defo have me fast akip after eating them.

1 baht a minute?? I thought it was 4 baht using 006??

I'm back in the UK at the moment so when I heard about this True promotion I contacted a friend in Thailand who bought a sim card yesterday then phoned me to test the quality. We spoke for four minutes and it cost four baht so maybe they've reduced the cost .

Was that to a UK mobile or a landline?

One day my front left tire was found flat. An assistant helped me to buy a second hand tire for THB700 and changed it.

After a few days of using it, I found the replaced tyre was losing pressure too.

I normally put pressure for 30 at gas station every sunday and the next sunday the pressure was found to be 22.

The assistant took the car to do a recheck of the tire and found that the tire itself doesn't have a problem (after putting through a water test). He suggested that it may be to do with the Rim of the tire which may have dust or rusty, etc. Anyway he has cleaned it for now and asked me to check for another week.

I have the following questions:

1) What is the correct tire pressure for Vios? Is 22 (front-left) ok to survive say for every week of resetting it to be 30 again.

2) What is the cost for replacement of new tire? Is THB700 for second hand reasonable?

3) How often should we totally replace the tire to NEW.. after how many Kms? Or is there such thing?

4) Why would the second hand tire lose pressure quickly.. any ideas?

5) What is wrong with taking the spare tyre at the back and replace it with the front-left? My assistant said, the spare tyre may not be ideal to replace as it may be too old. Is it true? Then why have the spare tyre at the back.

I have no idea about technicalities of the car.. so please help.

tyre pressures should be somewhere on the car or on the tyre itself. Mine (VW) has advised pressures on a sticker in the door well and the tyres themselves have them on the side.

I would stick the spare on and put the 700Bt tyre as the spare. As long as the spare is legal ie not bald/worn/damaged it shouldn't matter how old it is. See how the spare performs and if it's the same then you've had 3 different tyres on the same wheel with the same problem, which would mean it ain't the tyre.

With regard to when tyres should be replaced there's no hard and fast rule, it depends on how and where you drive, generally speaking if you spend more and get expensive brands they tend to last longer. Front tyres will wear more at the sides than rear tyres so you can rotate (put back on front and vice versa) to get more life out of them.

Just have a look at them from time to time and check there's enough tread. I've had slow leaks before and just kept an eye on them and when they started to go down too fast replaced with part-worn/puncture repaired 2nd hand.

No idea about prices in Thailand sorry

Ive only ever had Two Diesel vehicles an old Ford Escort Van and my Current new pickup, my Thai neighbor came to show me his new Diesel pickup, and we went for a ride in it, one thing that struck me was , he just got straight into the pickup, turned the ignition key and off we went . My point is this .. when I get into my Diesel vehicle, I put the ignition key in the lock, turn it and a set of instrument warning lights , light up on the dashboard, I then wait a few seconds for 3 the warning lights to go off, then I turn the ignition key and start the engine, where as my Thai neighbor just put the ignition key straight in the lock, and started the engine. I seem to remember way back about waiting for some warning lights to go off before starting a Diesel engine , have I got this wrong some where ..?

Thanks

TL

Some diesel engines have glow plugs to heat the fuel before ignition, one of the warning lights you refer to may be a glow plug light, check your manual and see if your engine has glow plugs, if it does it's better to wait till it goes out before starting the engine.

Your neighbours truck may use a different way of pre-heating the fuel before ignition.

I have heard many 1st hand stories from friends which contradict soihok's statements here. It would seem if you don't have a valid license from your home country, you will have to take the tests, both written and driving. There is no such thing as an "international drivers license." Your drivers license from home is an "international drivers license" already if they are part of the UN's international road convention, and most are. IDL's are a scam plain and simple. There is something called an "international drivers permit" but it is simply a translation of your current license into several languages. It provides no additional rights or privilages, and is not translated into Thai anyway. No one anywhere requires the IDP's with one exception: Some car rental companies in China, and that's only if your license isn't already in English or Chinese. . IDP's and IDL's are cleaver ways to separate fools from their money. Search this forum. There is a recent thread on this here.

Hi,

interesting what you say about IDP's I did get one when I came to Phuket in September (I got seperated from £5) and when I rented a car the rental company guys who turned up did want to see it as well as my UK licence. I guess every place/company is slightly different but seeing as it was only £5 lasts for a year and was very easy to get (post office, one form and a photo) it didn't make me feel all that foolish :-)

will Gold help ? where to invest ? Better to buy a case of Mouton Rothschild and enjoy !

3 days to go -

"October 25, 2009 - A catastrophe starts on October 25, 2009. It could be that the H1N1 flu virus reaches a level of extreme lethality, the US dollar completely collapses, or Israel bombs Iran. In reaction to this crisis, the Obama administration will be thrown into major chaos ten days later.[2]

A complete collapse of the US Dollar in 2009.[11]

End of the World in 2012: The Web Bot has predicted that a cataclysm will devastate the planet in the year 2012, possibly a reversing of Earth's magnetic poles"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Bot

http://www.youtube.com/user/webbotproject

and "When Israel bombs Iran, they'll use a nuclear-tipped bunker buster that will hit something unforeseen underground. As a result, a radioactive cloud will form that will pollute and sicken Southeast Asia. This will cause much of the world to turn against Israel."

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2009/07/21

best thing to do is to make a tin-foil hat and go stand on a tall building, take some friends with you, make a BIG sign with 'we love you' written on it and wait for the aliens to come. When you see the big laser beam coming towards you, don't be scared, it's a 'love beam' it won't hurt you.

Thanks to everyone! We will be leaving to BKK tonight and I am really looking forward to my first Thailand trip. I am pretty sure we will manage to get to Koh Lanta now.

Have a nice day everybody.

Hope you have a great time. If things do get a little 'held up' and you're waiting around for this connection and that minibus or whatever, try not to get too stressed out. When I went from Phuket (Karon) to Phi Phi the minibus was late it was chucking it down with rain, the traffic was a nightmare and the minibus driver stopped to pick up his wifes handbag from somewhere...it was ok though, the boat waited for us :-) and we got where we were going.

Enjoy

:-)

Talking about looking dirty.. Thai girls wearing dried white makeup on their faces with some facial hair, looks "dirty" and very disgusting to me.

wow! i thought i was the only one who found mustachoiued bearded thai girls a turn off

too funny! as if having a moustache wasn't bad enough! (I know, I'll slap some polyfiller all over my face that will look great!)

thank the Lord, someone was born intact

I love the switch, open that and the noise itself says " I am here and I mean business" I switched one far too long back to get away from some thugs and the mother jumped right out of my hand and I got my ass kicked!

all my pals in USA carry guns-even my gandparents- almost never had to use- wish it was like UK, but it ain't, its our culture now, like it or not

it pretty well far too much in my beloved country I gotta say with the whole gun culture, people not trained, often extreme right wing nerds out looking for trouble

be glad when they can stop all that

its a shame really that in this day and age we may still need something, but unfortunatly it can be necessary

and I hear from my UK cops buddys that even there now its getting really bad

I understand that protection is sometimes needed but here in London there are so many knives and people get cut up every day. A knife is such a horrible weapon, it slashes and disfigures people. Isn't there something else you could carry? I understand your previous training and expertise seems like it was with knives but I hope you can find an alternative. Once the knife 'culture' is established (and I'm not suggesting you're establishing it btw) then the slightest argument ends up with someone getting 'shanked' blood all over the street and retribution later on.

As far as 'going tooled up' is concerned I always used to (don't feel the need anymore) carry brass knuckles, enough to show you mean business and useful too if needed without opening someones guts or killing them. I'm not suggesting that you do the same, it's up to you, but I hope you can stop carrying the blade mate, I've seen too many scarred up faces on young guys.

Any weapon you carry, you should always be prepared to use and using a knife on someone results in hideous injury.

Pulling a knife on someone in Thailand and then actually using it to injure a Thai person...... I would recommend that you don't do that.

Dumb decision, he's one of the most famous figures in history, good reason to have a wax carricature. It's unfortunate a few imbeciles can choose what the rest of us can and can't see. The museum just needs to ensure that his portayal is done in a tasteful manner, which the comment probably didn't do but that's an easy fix and doesn't require him removed.

It's odd that nazi sensitivity has grown with time rather than fallen, a sure sign people (you know who) are milking it.

Ridiculous thing is that you would likely have the same media uproar if this took place in the U.S. or Europe? What has happened to free speech. Let people make their own decisions. Have we no faith in humanity or we merely being being controlled through selective media.

Probably a bunch of Jews complaining is my guess. Funny thing is how they've gone and done basically the same thing with Palestine, albeit in a more politically correct and less brutal manner.

Yes, it probably was 'a bunch' of jews.... do jews come in a 'bunch'? anyway, they do kindof have the right to complain about a large billboard with hitler on it doncha think? it did look like a 'hitler welcomes you to Pattaya' bilboard so it's a good thing to take it down but removing the waxwork is a mistake. Everyone should be able to be educated about what happened in Europe in the 1920's, economic meltdown allowing extremist politicians to plunge most of the world into horrendous conflict resulting in the destruction of most of the continent and the horrific deaths of tens of millions of people and shaping the political structure of the influential world powers up to the present day.

Probably not achieved by having a waxworks museum....

a dowry for a girl that as already been married would be in the region of 30.000bt tops,and 3 baht of gold,thats if she or the family were lucky,

put your man foot down quick,to keep the peace offer the family this amount,as a one of and final hand out,

not easy when there is a child to think of,

I thought dowry (sin sod) for one who has been married before should be ZERO.

Yup, my g/f sin sod was 30,000bt and if she gets married again there won't be one. When we talked about her previous marriage and sin sod she was quite matter of fact about it, (less so about the wan*ker who paid it!) it gets paid ONCE!

If the OP is feeling generous, and if the post is to be believed then he is. The money you're paying her now should be plenty and the girl and the rest of her family should be happy with that. She's conned you into getting her pregnant to try and get a big score, don't blame her really for trying it on given that you're already shelling out more than 5 times what most ordinary working people earn every month!

I agree that calling her bluff by saying you'll take the baby yourself could well end up backfiring on you big time.

If it's all true and you do like this girl and you want to keep the baby and her then I reckon you should just tell her that you haven't got it and if you did have it you wouldn't give it to her family because you'll both need it to take care of the new family which is you and her and the baby, so she has a choice; she stays with you and carries on getting 50k/month ( i would even cut that down, now we have to save money for the baby's future, 10K of your money's going into a savings account) plus you supporting the new baby or you split up with her and you'll give her 10k a month for the baby, which is still a hel_l of a lot more than many women get.

Plus she'll need to repair what trust used to be there because by asking for a million baht you now think of her very differently.

if you do have a million and you do give it up then, what's the phrase I'm looking for?....... som nam na

Just out of curiosity, what's it like in another "no-gun" country, Britain? Lots of guns there as well?

Eastern Europeans have brought guns in but they are still fairly hard to get hold of. The penalties for possession of a firearm these days are harsh.

A better comparison with Thailand would be Brazil or Columbia IMO.

There's plenty of guns here, nothing to do with eastern europeans or whatever else the daily mail tells you, there have been guns here for years and years and not hard to get hold of either. I t would be a bit of a surprise if you borrowed someones car and there was a loaded one in the glove box but yes, they're here.

A house built by 'the king' can be had for a moving in price of about 5kbht (300k-400k sale price on a 2 bed detached home )

Followed by payments of about 2bht a month.

According to my bank

Loans to buy homes are called 'home loans'

Loans to buy businesses are called 'mortgages'

sorry, 'the king'??? 2bht a month??? what do you mean?

My g/f has 2 daughters (6 and 8) in school in Chiang Rai and has never mentioned any school fees. Ongoing expenses like books pencils and stuff yes, but never specific tuition fees. When they started school we bought uniforms and gym shoes and stuff but no fees.

condo for what..

many people with condo.. in 10 years thailand will begin like a monaco... near nice

stop buy in thailand!!!!

Hey morris,

What does that mean? monaco... near nice What are you trying to say?

stop buy in thailand!!!! What does this mean? Please explain

I agree the comment is open to speculation.

It could mean the poster thinks that if foreigners keep buying in Thailand it could become like Monaco which was a poor little fishing village until, because of it's status as a principality, has advantageous tax/gambling laws and attracted billions of dollars/euros/pounds etc. in foreign investment and is full of apartments owned by foreigners which are largely empty most of the year, It is a very expensive place to live now and there are some who can struggle to afford to live there. The other side of this coin is that it is no longer a little backwater place and many locals live (well) off the foreign investment.

It could, maybe, be just a 'farang go home' statement.

or 'come for holiday then go home'

It could also mean. 'I can't afford to buy a condo anymore because all you lot have pushed the prices up'

In many countries, a large influx of foreign investment/immigration always makes some people nervous or unhappy, usually because they feel threatened by it and often because they don't understand the economic implications.

New Zealand must be one of the most anal ones about all this. I have a friend in Bangkok who took a business trip to Auckland and found out the hard way. He frequently tossed an apple into his computer case when he went off to work here in BKK for a quick snack in case he worked through lunch or something. Unfortunately for him, he forgot that he still had one in his case when he flew down to Auckland. NZ Customs found it, he told them that he was really sorry and had simply forgotten about it, but NZ Customs still found it necessary to punish him with a NZ$150 fine for a single undeclared appl. Absolutely silly.

I was questioned for about 20 minutes in Auckland 'Agricultural Customs' about some mud on my boots. Apparently they have lost species of plants etc. in the past because the eco-system in NZ has developed in isolation that even the mud on your boots is screened! I think they were more worried about farm-based stuff and when I pointed out I lived in London, they relented somewhat but did take it very seriously! After all is said and done it's their country and if they think your mates apple is a problem they'll do him for it.

They also have 'drop bins' and many signs telling you to drop all foodstuffs in the bin before customs. Easy to forget you've got an apple or whatever stuffed in yer pocket tho.

There must be more to this story its inconceivable that a farang could behave in this manner.

I'm assuming this comment is ironic/sarcastic? I hope so anyway!

It should go without saying that people from anywhere in the world all have the capability to act or behave in any manner.

As with any story there are two sides. I'm not surprised that many here see the Thai person as being in the wrong.

This probably sounds quite strange..but i have an irrational fear regarding falling from a height.

Thing is, i was a rock climber for many years with my ex, but i felt fine even at quite a height purely because i felt secure (harness). However, free soloing (without use of harness), even at short heights would often result in my joints locking in fear.

I also feel somewhat fine at great heights on a building balcony IF the wall is solid and doesnt have gaps. However, even if the height is lower and the balcony is say made of iron with lots of gaps I feel quite sick. Same with tall buildings that have wall to floor glass. I even feel sick thinking about it.

What happens mainly is I keep getting a constant image of falling out/falling down.

Its starting to bother me because I recently gave up on moving to a really nice apartment with a great view, purely because i couldnt handle the balcony (even though i really want to!).

I have read about fear of heights on google, but not anything that seems to fluctuate in this way. Some things frighten me, others im fine with. The main suggestions i read is thinking rationally and taking deep breaths..but i still get those images going through my head. Crazy uh.

Anyone have similar experiences? What methods have you tried?

Any advice?

Thank you.

Hi,

Very interesting thread, thanks to everyone for sharing.

I just thought I'd let you know that i too have a kind of 'variable vertigo' thing.

If I can see the ground through a grill or railings or whatever then my stomach seems to 'drop' and I can't think of anything else other than 'geez, how f***in far down is THAT!' it even happens if I see the same thing on TV from the comfort of my chair!

However, it doesn't happen when i'm in a tall building and there's some floor space between me and the drop, or I'm definitely INSIDE a structure, I feel fine, in fact i love being in tall buildings and can spend hours just looking at a cityscape from a skyscraper, fully aware of exactly how high up I am. Balconies aren't a problem, but if they have a grill you have to stand on....all I can do is look in terror at the ground head starts swimming and blood runs cold!

I reckon, from reading what everyone has written it must be the depth perception, I've never really sought any treatment for it as it doesn't really interfere with my life in any way at the moment.

Not sure how helpful this is to anyone but thought I'd share anyway

Every time I have bought something electrical in Thailand, Big C, Carrefour or Makro they have unpackaged it, made sure it worked and demonstrated it to me. Criticize Thai retailing if you must but that is better service than I would have got back home.

I completely agree, a few months back I bought a cheap (15 quid I think?) shredder from Tescos in London, got it home and it didn't work, at all! Nothing! So, i took it back, 'sorry about that' they said, after the 'Customer Service' people had finished their conversation they sent for someone from the electrical dept. who had another conversation about something else, then eventually got me another one, which I took home and found that it didn't work either!

Took that one back, spoke to a manger who informed me with a straight face that 'oh none of those work everyone has brought them back'!!! BUT THEY'RE STILL ON THE SHELVES!

Astonishing!