trainman34014

You can buy tickets at KTB anytime before 8th November. 100 Baht each adult which is 50% reduction on gate price of 200 Baht. Over 60's only 50 Baht (with yellow book) for ex pats. Absolute bargains I would say.

I ordered tuna sushi the other day, they said it was fresh and it came out solid frozen, so i guess it's what your def. of fresh is, perhaps fresh(ly frozen)?? I'll keep my eye on this thread, I'd love to make a nice nicoise salad w/seared rare tuna, I'll just have to start a post on where to find nicoise olives!

Fancy sharing the recipe when you got the tuna?

Don't have to wait, I sear fresh tuna so still raw in the middle and put it on top of a nice dressed salad greens, perhaps a light balsamic vinegrette, with ripe tomato wedges, boiled new potatoes, anchovie fillets, hard boiled eggs, capers and olives topped with fresh cracked black pepper and be sure to salt each of the components as needed (i like to toss my veg in the dress as well). Use your own preferences by adding what is available or to your liking, perhaps artichoke hearts or roasted red peppers. It actually is quite nice with canned tuna too, get it packed in spring water, rinse it well and dress in a nice olive oil based dressing with fresh herbs perhaps. Healthy and delicious, perfect for a hot summer (or any time of year in Thailand) lunch or light dinner.

New Potatoes ! Where in Chiang Mai? Never seen them in 4 years of living here.

When we retired here, we figured we'd live in the city and see how life is without a car. If your budget is tight, you don't need one, but if you have the nerves to try to drive here, it could be helpful. Personally, I can't imagine trying to park a car the places where I go and I'm scared to death of the drivers in town, and the fact you have to drive on the wrong side of the road in this country.

I guess you are American then Nancy. Us Brits drive on the same side of the road here!! But I have sent a lot of time driving in continental Europe and there is no problem switching from one side to the other (if you see what I mean). Meanwhile, traffic here is not that bad. Far worse in India or Paris. And as a cyclist, I will say safer than the UK.

I agree with Ian, as a Brit' i've always found driving here easy and not anywhere near as scary as a lot of people seem to think it is. Sure; a lot of Thai drivers are poor but that's down to poor education. However; even with plenty of them around I have driven in far worse places in the world.

Cars are expensive here but I would not be without my small Jap' economy car. I do have a Bicycle as well though and tend to use that more on a daily basis.

Usual condolences to the families of the dead in this sad accident. I hope those lying in hospital beds recover from their injuries and all affected receive appropriate compensation.

No news of the fate of the driver. Not worth speculating on the cause of the accident until Mr Plod has finished the investigation.

Interesting to see news links from "The Other Paper" again.

RIP the deceased and best wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured. Will Mr Plod be inspecting the tread depth on the tyres I wonder? Looking around some of the buses in Chiang Mai bus station I noticed there were odd tyres fitted on the same axles and some had very little tread. Thank the lord for Nackon Chai !

Hell of a lot of rain in Hang Dong these last few hours. How's the River looking in the City?

Please someone correct me if I`m wrong here:

But I thought that all farangs had to give details of their names, addresses and passport numbers to the store owner when they purchase a mobile phone in Thailand.

Nah. Nobody cares. You can buy SIM cards at any little phone shop, and they don't ask for ID (or your name, or anything)....

In fact I was a little surprised when I recently bought an AIS 3G prepaid card at the official Telewiz / AIS shop in CM and they didn't ask for ID. For post-paid, sure, they want ID and all that but that's only to ensure that you'll be paying the bills...

Bought a new phone last month and nobody asked for ID. Last week we came back into the country from Malaysia and they were handing out SIM cards like confetti in Swampy and CNX for pre-pay.

Sounds yummy,will have to have a look.

I have never seen one here but I would try Robinsons.

how did he die on the toilet.would not be easy thing to do

You obviously didn't read the report which states 'the empty sleeping pill bottles that he had used'.

RIP the man. Seems the BIB have probably come to the right conclusion just for a change. With so much evidence on hand it would be hard not to !

What is your Thai ID? I am just asking. I am not looking for an argument.

MSPain

Yellow book will get you in at Thai price.

Seems to me the most obvious answer here is that the mechanic removed the paperwork from the car and then forgot to put it back in. I think the point you all forget is that when they do something stupid here they never admit it because of 'loss of face'. Any excuse or lie will do because they can never admit they are wrong about anything. TIT.

Anyone know where to source Chubb locks or a very good Western make of Mortise lock in Chiang Mai? Looked around but can't see what's required and even the door makers and suppliers can't supply any decent locks.

WE TV finally put their September movie schedule on their website -- on September 3. That's par for the course, unfortunately. Frankly, I figured we wouldn't see it until Monday when it hadn't been updated by the close of business yesterday.

Let's see -- here's what we missed on Channels 17, 18 and 19 Sept 1-3 all because they hadn't updated their website -- Braveheart, Behind Enemy Lines, Spiderman, La Vie En Rose, Blackhawk Down, Ghostbusters, Men of Honor, Vampire's Kiss, Vera Drake, Keeping the Faith, Wedding Crashers, Mona Lisa Smile, The Flintstones, Batman Begins, The Patriot and The Matrix. There was much drek that I didn't even mention. I don't think I would have watched all of these movies, but it would have been nice to know about them.

Come on, WE TV -- you've got some good movie programing -- just let us know about it.

I've sent them emails about this that are totally ignored.

Of course your ignored. You're just a Farang in the perfect land full of perfect people and it's all your fault that they can't be efficient enough to supply us with details of movies before they are actually shown. TIT.

Amazing Thailand!

Or whatever crap they're saying now.

It's a wonderful country but some of the people in it, for some of the time, are disgusting. One step out of line if you are a Farang can lead to you being treated worse than they treat most animals here. However; before people start blaming Thai's for all the wrongs of the world I should add that most 'developing' countries act in very similar ways, that's why they are still 'developing' !

The only problem with transits in India (on Kingfisher, Jet or Indian) is that I understand you need a transit visa, so added costs and hassles.

CMMCB

Not so; done it several times via Mumbai and no visa needed. Where do these stories come from?

Don't know if anyone else finds the same; but since doing regular sinus irrigation I find I get a lot less colds/flu than I used to here.

I started about a year or so ago after a visiting uber healthy Swedish friend came to stay.

She swore it helped keep her healthy and fit.

I must admit I feel way better than I used to and have missed all the bugs going around - "touch wood".

What does this actually involve? It kind of sounds like you drive a tractor up inside your nose with a plough or harrow attached to it. The mind boggles !

I know that Siam TV also charges you 2 or 3 percent for simply using a credit card. Are you talking about another 3.5 percent on top of that ?

Never had this problem at Siam's main shop in town. No DCC and no extra percentage for use of card. Over the last three years I've used cards at the old and new shops and never had any problems at all.

I don't think even Lord Montague would dine there at that price. Sounds incredibly expensive for CM,and, tut tut, a poor wine list to boot !

Nice to read about someone who is happy with food and prices and doesn't keep on about not being able to find a decent Pizza in Chiang Mai !

I never eat where there is no written menu unless it is a simple noodle bar and everyone pretty much knows what the prices are. If this place wants to sell its chicken at 40 or 79 Baht they can at least write a menu with prices on it.

pork shoulder 135 kilo @ Big C yesterday

On promotion at 112 kilo' last friday in Tesco. You should have seen the stampede! I noticed Cooking Oil at 37 baht in Big C Hang Dong this week so I think the big Oil rip off is calming down. They've been taking big margins on the Oil shortage for far too long.

Been out of the loop for a short time, but coming back into the loop is somewhat shocking.

Anyone have examples of rather sharp increases in food prices.

I did think that the gov't put a price ceiling on eggs a short while back.

Same shop, same size eggs and rack of 30 eggs:

July 1, 11, 95 baht per rack of 30

August 1,11, 98 baht per rack of 30

August 10, 11,105 baht per rack of 30

quite a good percent increase in just 40 days

I also read the other day that the gov't put a ceiling on pork at 170 baht per kilo

Was not too long ago that pork was 80 baht per kilo

Does make it difficult keeping a stable menu price.

On another topic,,,,,,thanks to all who PM'd and posted their kind thoughts and best wishes over the past couple months.... big sincere thank you

Gonzo

Nice to see you up and running again Gonzo....stay well.

Just returned from Makro north past Payap turnoff on Superhwy Saturday 110806: no Beer Lao whatsoever.<img class="bbc_emoticon" alt="" src="http://static.thaivisa.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/huh.gif">

I know that, bought their last case of dark yesterday. (insert evil laugh here)

I was in Makro on 108 today and they have about 100 cases of both colours so fill yer boots !

Thanks; I'm still paying by the month. Thought about stopping but I just can't be arsed cutting the hedges and almost daily putting trash bags in the truck and dumping them somewhere in town in a bin.. It's easier to just pay.

At least you're not dumping them by the side of the road as most Thai's do. Riding my bike last week down a quiet country lane and a bloke passed me on a motorbike and stopped about half a k ahead, lobbed something in the bushes and rode off. When I reached the point where he lobbed I saw two bags of domestic rubbish that he had just deposited in the countryside to join all the other piles left by others before him. Thai's can be such lovely people but oh my; a lot have only air where their brain is supposed to be.