connda

Why are eggs in the US refrigerated but eggs in Thailand are not?

Wear your helmet on your motorbike, wear your seatbelt in your car, have a current tax stamp and proof of insurance, have a Thai DL, there isn't anything they can do to you legally. If they try to extort you, speak only English and act dumb. You'll eventually get waved though.

LOTFLMAO

No loss if the next tsunami takes the island off the map, with the exception of innocent life; good riddance to the rest. I'm sure in my younger days of Christian indoctrination, there were stories of 'God' sweeping the slate clean with a good douse of water every now and then. Not a bad idea.

God I love it. All those illegal aliens in the US screaming for instant citizenship, while those going through the proper channels are going to get the shaft.

Listen up Thailand -- I Want Citizenship Now!!! (wait a minute....I'm here legally and I process my paperwork through the proper channels. Doing that, I couldn't even qualify for citizenship in the US)

Shangri la was 29k last time I checked 2 months ago. If it was 20k I would join.

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All the gyms jacked their prices by 30% or more over the last year from what I can tell. Shangrila markets to a hi-so clientele, so if your pocketbook fits, enjoy.

The Shangri-la Hotel on Chan Klan, THB 20,000 per year, excellent gym, showers, sauna, whirlpool and swimming pool, usually empty in the early morning, never gets really busy anyway..

Do they have any one with knowledge enough to help an old git set up an exercise program and is the equipment maintained?

Fitness Thai has personal trainer's. I've seen them work with clients and they do a good job (especially if you're a hottie). They can tailor a program for you based on your wishes and goals. They have various price packages for their trainers.

I know it is a silly question but does any one know of a fitness center with well maintained equipment and knowledgeable staff willing to help you even if you are not a good looking young chic but a wrinkled up old geyser?

I used to go to the Dongtawan central hotel but the equipment was never kept up and asking for information was a no no unless you were a good looking young chic. But the pool was nice.

I've been a member of a number of fitness clubs. One constant seems to be a consistent problem is keeping the equipment in proper repair, even after they have raised prices by 30% or more. I think it just part of the mai bpen rai attitude that permeates Thailand. I personally have settled at Fitness Thai primarily because they have a large selection of free weights and weight machines and my primary fitness goal is resistance training. What ticks me off the most is when they can keep the iron pins used to adjust the weight stacks connected to the machine, and why they can't keep the simply mechanisms in repair (belts, chains, seats, and pins primarily). And on a good day, only about 70% of the treadmill are working...maybe. But I've seen worse that is far more expensive. If I want to swim I go to the public pool. They also have a number of studios for aerobics, aerobic dance, spinning, and yoga. The group exercise is probably a plus if you're into that sort of thing. I'm just not.

Centra is OK is you just want a place to do modest resistance training and cardio, and they have a pool and a whirlpool and a pleasant 4th floor view of the city, but you're gonna pay much more. And they have the same sort of problems with maintenance. If budget's not a problem...then, no problem.

Is Police Harrasment for " Tea Money " a crime ???

Obviously not, but you better have your helmet on when on a motorbike. One bust a month is all the police can afford, as they already know who the culprits are. They just pay money not to get caught. I often wonder if crime would go down if there were no police?

Anyone been watching that "checkpoint" on 2nd Rd in Pattaya before you get to the Central Festival Mall? I've seen one or two thais pulled over there, but 90%+ are farangs (WITH helmets on). 'Have been noticing more random stops of motorbikes entering 2nd Rd earlier on from the sois coming up from Beach Rd - in this case ALWAYS farangs. Saw one older guy,wearing his helmet, driving cautiously as he approached 2nd Rd, did NOT stick his nose out into traffic but stopped well short, middle of the day, 'looked like a model driver compared to most coming out of those sois - but got stopped. 'Sure has the appearance of a police "initiative" aimed at farangs.

I first went to Pattaya in 1986 for a week and had a great time.

Returned in 2007 and left the day after I got there. Haven't been back since and have no plans ever to go back.

Vote with your feet, not with you crotch. There are better places in Thailand.

Thai good;Foreigner bad. Crackdown will be successfully complete within 30 days.

So they can get away with carrying inadequate insurance to compensate a death, and the Thai government gives a big 'wai' (wink and nod) to the insurance companies.

I got nothing else to say...I'm just shaking my head.

C'mon guys, it's not their fault, Western women are just "bigger-boned"....

why do you limit yourself to western women?

Ahhhhh, because they are fat, obese slobs who are unable to control what they put in their mouths? Even after moving to Thailand!

Exercise moderately, eat a plate of Thai food in the portions that are served for your meals, snack wisely primarily on fruits and non-commercial kanom. You'll lose weight until you reach your 'ideal' weight. Then welcome to the healthy world.

I love it when folks decide to toss in the 'race card'. There is always someone who's gotta end their comments with "You're being a racist!!!"

Well, how the hell does that work when I'm buying tanning cream for my trip to the beach so that I can become a handsome-bronzed man like George Hamilton. I guess when you can't win an intelligent conversation with someone, you just start tossing around the connotation that perhaps anybody who has light-skin is a racist, Weak argument at best -- maybe even racist!

What's worse than the Thai obsession to have light-white skin, is Unilever's politically correct press release. That's sort of hypocritical, mai?

Unilever -- grow a set -- you're advertising scheme is working like a charm, so you're apologizing for what reason??? Perhaps you need new blood in your marketing department.

Air pollution linked to lower birth weights.

<deleted>. Not the current generation of Thais. One more generation and they're going to be having the same problems with obesity as Westerners. IMHO

If they are eating traditional Thai food than they eat a balance diet.

It's the pudgy little fat boys and girls that are gobbling up the corporate-mass-made, GMO, highly-processed junk food that Westerners live on. Heck, I lost 6 kilos the first year I was here by just changing my diet to Thai food.

Trust me -- its a no-brainer!

SOS - DD
Same old sh*t - Different day!

RIP

I used to be a Starbucks customer, but abject greed in the corporate world like this totally turns me off to their (overpriced) products. There are times when corporate jackasses should simple ignore small vendors who present absolutely no threat to these corporate behemoths multi-multi billion dollars profit centers. All they have accomplished is to tarnish their own image, if you want to call moving your operation offshore to avoid US taxes and image. "He is without sin should cast the first stone'. I hope they win in Thai court and have the 'damages' are reduced to 1 baht and a slap on the hand. These corporate giants have better things to do other than pursuing Intelligent Property suits against some poor individual pushing around a hand cart -- you know, like evading their social responsibility to pay taxes. I won't go to Starbucks again. I found a place in Chiang Mai that makes coffee drinks that are just as good as Star(Big)Bucks for less than half the price. Star(Mega)Bucks would probably send out the hounds in an attempt to prove they pirated their 'specific coffee making methods'. Big government and Big Corporation have one thing in common -- Big Greed.

Connda; If you would read some of the previous comments on this topic, you would know that Starbucks cannot "simple ignore small vendors who present absolutely no threat to these corporate behemoths". It isn't that simple. Read rametindallas's comment below. Besides that, Starbucks gave those copy-cat thieves the opportunity to cease their illegal actions before Starbucks started any legal actions against them.

Starbucks has been very responsible in their actions.

If Starbucks knowingly lets one person violate their trademark, then they have to let anyone violate their trademark. Once the precedent has been set, (that you don't care who uses your trademark) then any large company can come in and do what the small offender did and there would be nothing Starbucks could do about it. You can't have selective enforcement. It is costing Starbucks much more in legal fees and bad publicity that even ten pushcarts like Mr. Bung runs but they have to protect their trademark or lose all rights to it. I don't know why this is so difficult to understand.

Another point would be, why does it make a difference if the thief is small time or big time; you have still been robbed. Let me personalize it for you. Would it make a difference to you and your family if a poor thief with six children to feed robbed your house or a gang of professional thieves robbed your house? You suffer a loss in both cases. With your logic, you would let the poor thief off with no punishment (and even allow him to reoffend) and prosecute the professional gang. What would your family (stockholders), that your are responsible to, say about your generous spirit?

Connda;

Your statement that Starbucks has "moving your operation offshore to avoid US taxes" is factually incorrect and zany nonsense.

Starbucks has thousands of stores in the U.S. and it's corporate headquarters is in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.

Your statement that Starbucks is " evading their social responsibility to pay taxes" is again factually incorrect and more zany nonsense.

Starbucks DID NOT evade paying taxes. They used applicable tax laws to pay the least amount of taxes that they are required to pay. And 99.99% plus of all individuals and businesses do exactly that. That is exactly what Starbucks did in Britain. Nothing legally, ethically, or socially wrong with it at all.

Tax evasion is an individual or business performing illegal acts to evade paying legally required taxes. Acts such as not reporting income, misreporting types of income, claiming deductions that are not valid, etc. Starbucks in Britain DID NOT do any of this.

Your comment " Star(Mega)Bucks would probably send out the hounds in an attempt to prove they pirated their 'specific coffee making methods'." is yet more zany nonsense.

If your favored Chiang Mai coffee house does not start using the Starbucks logo in an intent to deceive customers or take some action to deceive people that they are making Starbucks coffee, etc; They have very little to worry about any legal action from Starbucks.

My bad. I retract my statement regarding StarBucks avoiding taxes in the US. They were avoiding taxes in the UK. That makes them a paragon of social responsibility. And chasing down cart vendors for IP infringement is an exercise in diminishing returns. and a waste of time. Just my opinion, No one has to agree with me.

More than 100,000 foreigners staying illegally in Thailand

My my...If this was the United States, staying in Thailand illegally would be the quickest way to obtain citizenship!!!. Expats would be flooding immigration demanding a path to citizenship for expats here illegally, they'd lobby parliament to let those entering Thailand illegal the ability to stay and suck off the teat of Mother Thailand's social welfare program, and they would be chaining themselves to the deportation buses to keep their fellow expats from being transported to either the airport of the detention center.

Of course, it also would be politically incorrect to call them illegals. You would have to use a more compassionate, sensitive term like undocumented. Perhaps they are here to do work that no other Thai wants to do. So come on, get with the liberal agenda. No more saying illegal -- it's now politically correct to say 'undocumented expats'!

I see a contingent of the NAMBLA seems to be chiming in in defense of the abbot. Comments like these insinuate that underaged teens and pre-teens not only are willing participants, but the actual 'leader' of the acts.

NAMBLA members and sympathizers -- you people are sick. Go get some help. If you abused my child and I found out, you'd be a post-op katoey by the time you attended your court date.

I used to be a Starbucks customer, but abject greed in the corporate world like this totally turns me off to their (overpriced) products. There are times when corporate jackasses should simple ignore small vendors who present absolutely no threat to these corporate behemoths multi-multi billion dollars profit centers. All they have accomplished is to tarnish their own image, if you want to call moving your operation offshore to avoid US taxes and image. "He is without sin should cast the first stone'. I hope they win in Thai court and have the 'damages' are reduced to 1 baht and a slap on the hand. These corporate giants have better things to do other than pursuing Intelligent Property suits against some poor individual pushing around a hand cart -- you know, like evading their social responsibility to pay taxes. I won't go to Starbucks again. I found a place in Chiang Mai that makes coffee drinks that are just as good as Star(Big)Bucks for less than half the price. Star(Mega)Bucks would probably send out the hounds in an attempt to prove they pirated their 'specific coffee making methods'. Big government and Big Corporation have one thing in common -- Big Greed.

This article is outrageous and unnecessary.

We foreigners are vaguely aware of certain cultural anomalies in the behavior of Monks and their novices in Thai Buddhist Temples.

It is not our place to judge the Nane (Novices) or their Teachers (Monks). It is normal for a Nane (Novice) to be assigned to an individual mentor(Monk) when he first enters the temple. Usually a Nane will remain in the service of his master for some years.

However to accuse a deceased monk of habitual improper behavior is unfair and unreasonable.

According to the article, this wasn't an isolated instance. Usually, where there is smoke, there is fire.

Members of the Sangha are not above reproach or criticism -- even by Thais, and the fact that I'm 'non-Thai' does not discount that I've been a Theravada Buddhist for the better part of 35 years. "We" foreigners? Really. Buddhism isn't unique to Thailand, nor does Thailand own a franchise on this religion. Vinaya is Vinaya. Thai, Sri-Lanka, Cambodia, Myanmar, US, UK.....

I unfortunately whole-heatedly disagree with you...that's the non-Thai part of me that is quite unafraid to voice an opinion. Things like this need to see the light of day.

He Canuckamuck,

In the sector of independent dealers, you would be surprised how many owners from ny brand are scored a below average for the dealer after buying a budget model. This incluses people who bought Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha and other respectable dealers....

It seems that most people of small displacement motorcycles (less than 250cc) in Thailand dislike the original dealers they bought it....

This was one of the main reasons why Honda Thailand launched big bikes through a seperatated outlet they fully francince (control).

Interesting. I have a Honda Dream 125 also. I bought it in Korat, and the dealer provided some of the best customer service I've experienced in or outside of Thailand.

And having moved back to Northern Thailand, I've found the Honda service centers to generally be above average. It usually has a lot to do with the service manager, plus Honda has a reputation to maintain, But Lifan??? Hummm.

Like Canuckamuck said, I do like the bike. Smooth, comfortable ride for a relatively small displacement motorcycle. I like it better than the Honda Phantom or Kawasaki Boss. Great gas mileage and enough power for any roads I'm driving here in Thailand (it would be a little too small in the US or Canada). But the quality of service??? Ouch!

When celibacy is forced upon anyone, this is likely to happen as it is against the most basic instinct of man or animal to have sex. Being celibate should be a choice and not a requirement for a priest in any religion.

Nobody is forcing priests and monks to be priests and monks. Celibacy is part of the package. If they want to be religious and have sex too, they can go the protestant minister route, or go back to being layman such as Mitsuo Shibahashi (Phra Mitsuo Gavesako).

The issue isn't celibacy -- it's morality -- and at least in Buddhism, morality is the underpinning of the religion.

Pra Kru Indra-Sanuwattna crossed the line and it came back and bit him.