mickmac

Just found out I will not depart for my next job until 7th June, so please include me in +1

Well thats his opinion and he's welcome to it. I feel that there are still plenty of Farangs about that, even in these times, are prepared to "spash the cash". The thing is they don't know whats on offer!!! I have a feeling the managers attitude may backfire on him, after all the moneyed people are already going to the other lux. hotels rather than his, and with discount cards available, albeit at a price, as they like to keep an eye on the pennies as well.

This fellow seems to think that they are WAY above ANY competition and that they should go for high prices rather than low ones. I don't want to say what I thought he was talking about charging for a buffet, because I could have misunderstood, but it was WAY more than any other hotel.

How would you compare them to the Holiday Inn (or can you as you did not have their buffet)?

Sorry to say I cannot compare the buffet's. Maybe the manager needs reminding that there is a world wide recession on!!!!! I still have not seen the hotel advertised anywhere, how does he hope to project any type of customer loyality if he isn't even getting people into his hotel to try the goods? How can he compete with the Mandarin's and Holiday Inns frequent diners card? How many times has he got his wine suppliers to put on a meet and greet dine night there, to parade what his chef's can do? There are ways to attack the problem, but putting ones prices up and then sticking ones head in the sand does not seem the way round it for me.

Hi UG,

I have eaten in the downstairs restaurant on 3 occasions, and upstairs in the "posh" restaurant. There never appeared to be many people in the downstairs restaurant, where the lunch time buffet looked very good I must admit, we ordered from the menu and found it to be a little expensive though with a good variety. On the one occasion we went upstairs I had a very good steak, apprx, 1200 bht. On all the occasions we have been there the majority of the people in the restaurants have been Asian, and possibly they were staying there as guests.

The management there need to realise that there is a plethora of competition all around them, and at a lot cheaper prices than they have. On a Sunday its possibly easier to go to the Holiday Inn, get good parking and decent Dim Sum and still only pay 30-50% of what they would pay at the Meridien. The manager needs to get the people to go into his place, where are the enticements to go to the hotel, what are the hotel PR personnel doing to get people in? Nowadays its not good enough to open up a place and say "here we are, we're open come in" and expect people to be flooding into the place.

I must admit that if I go to eat at Duke's I will try to use the smaller original place across the river rather than the night Bazaar restaurant. I find that the noise, from what ever nationality of guests, just seems to bounce off the hard reflective surfaces of thewindows/floors etc. and seems to get amplified. The is especially noticable when seated upstairs. There is a lack of soft furnishings to help absorb/dissapate the noise.

I also find that over at the original Dukes there are fewer small children around, most seem to get taken to Chan Klan. Whilst they are nice to look at occasionally they do have a habit, especailly when 4 or 5 are together, of being very noisy and after they have finished eating are usually allowed to run around the place shouting and knocking into chairs, waiting staff etc.,(have encountered this twice in Duke's on Chan Klan), whilst the adoring parents look on, smile and finish off their dinners.

I know this will ranckle some parents out there, don't get me wrong I'm not saying its all kids, but to those parents who sit there smiling while their offspring run riot, have a little thought for other diners, and try to maintain some form of control over your offspring.

Before the deluge of hate mail starts..........Yes I have children of my own, but I did manage to keep them under control, even when as babies in a restaurant, if they started to cry I would take them out of the restaurant, I certainly never let them run riot even with their little friends!!!!

Don't you have to go to the ministry of Foreign affairs with the relevent paperwork, to get the Thai govt. stamp that you are indeed free to marry a Thai National, or do you intend to post everything down from CM to the ministry office in BKK?

We had an 11 day wait for a transit visa, to get from Heathrow terminal 3 to terminal 1. Lots of people applying for the summer hols. by the looks of things.

In the past I have reccommended the steak in the upstair restaurant in Le Meridien, there on Chang Klan/Loi Kroh corner. Quite expensive but the imported steak was very good quality. If you are looking for somewhere special, then its quite nice.

I don't know which medical you have to have , UKOOA, NPD etc.

I have to have the NPD, Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, one.

The following are the doctors that the NPD accepts medicals from:-

Dr. Sae Sue Supromjak Watcharaphong

Vatana Supromajakr

Bumrungrad Hospital

Bankok 10110

tel: 655 6334/5, fax: 667 2525

Dr. Sriwan Tiachunpun, Dr. Picheth Charoensiriwath

Samitivej Hospital

Bankok 10110

tel: 381 6807 – 392 0011, fax: 381 3490

I hope this helps. I too would love to be able to have it done in Chiang Mai.

Cheers

Mickmac

I think you will find that the Tannawan pool has a half roof over it, so that half of the pool is in the shade and half is not. It is not too far a walk from the main road either. If you need the address, you should be able to find it in the Chiang Mai Mail, as they have their office around there.

Hi Eddie,

Try the following link:- http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/doineedvisa/visadatvnationals, I hope this clears things up for you.

I see that Thai have now got it up on their web-site " Thai earned No.1 ranking in First Class and Business Class service by 2008 Skytrax global survey", not the way I read it they didn't!!

And your wife is ?

If Thai the below applies: http://www.delta.com/planning_reservations...ation/index.jsp

National Thailand (TH)

Transit United Kingdom (Great Britain) (GB)

Destination Ireland (Republic of) (IE)

ALSO CHECK DESTINATION INFORMATION BELOW

United Kingdom (Great Britain) (GB)

TWOV (Transit Without Visa):

Visa required, except for Passengers who may be granted

permission by the Immigration authorities to enter the United

Kingdom, for a stay not exceeding 24 hours.

The following conditions must be complied with:

- passengers hold confirmed reservations for an onward flight

within 24 hours; and

- continue to a third country; and

- have no purpose in entering the United Kingdom other than to

pass through in transit; and

- hold all documents required for the next destination.

Warning:

- There is no passport control on traffic between "Great

Britain & Northern Ireland" and "Ireland (Rep. of)".

For details, click here

- Non-compliance with entry/transit requirements (incl. forged

documents) For details, click here

National Thailand (TH) /Transit France (FR)

Destination Ireland (Republic of) (IE)

ALSO CHECK DESTINATION INFORMATION BELOW

France (FR)

TWOV (Transit Without Visa):

Visa required, except for Those continuing their journey to a

third country by the same or a connecting aircraft, provided

arriving and departing from/to non-Schengen countries, and not

leaving the airport transit area.

Additional Information:

- All passengers must hold proof of repatriation, e.g.

onward/return ticket and documents for return/onward

journey, and sufficient funds for maintenance during their

stay;

Warning:

- Non-compliance with entry/transit requirements may result in

fines up to EUR 5,000.-.

Thanks for all the information, its much appreciated.

Regards

Mickmac

Hi All,

My wife has a visa for Ireland, and am looking at the flights either via London or Paris then onto Dublin. Reason for this route being:- a good deal on the cost of Flight tickets. Will my wife require a visa to transit through either of the airports to catch the Dublin bound flight, she will be travelling with me?

Regards

Mickmac

I don't know if this site will be of any help to you ;-

http://one2car.com/SearchEngine/searchengine.aspx

There are quite a few 2nd hand car dealers around, hire a tuk tuk for the day, get around, down the bottom of Mae jo road. Turn left just after Tesco lotus on the ring road, down through JJ Market heading towards the moat, there are several 2nd hand dealers at each of the 2 major intersections on the way to the moat.

If you head towards the airport Plaza from CM muang there are also several dealers on the left there as you get towards the Shopping centre, culminating in Sure cars, the 2nd hand subsiduary of the main Toyota dealership across the road.

Hope this helps.

For Domestic flights try this site:- http://www.thaiairwaysthailand.com/the_hap...s/index_en.html

I found it very difficult to get to this page. I think you have to be a Royal Orchid Club member to get to it.

Hope this helps.

The Meridien makes a half decent one as well.

How could you eat me?

MINT SAUCE MINT SAUCE MINT SAUCE..................................

Hey I'm looking to buy a 42" lcd (dont like plasma) and was really impressed with the LG 53, seems like the new model of 42" lcd for LG. It was much brighter and had more vibrant colours than most of the other models, oh, that was 33,000 baht, they had better for alot more. I'm looking to spend max 35,000.

Lg 53 has been superseded here in UK with LG 6100 or LG 7000

Here in Uk LG has a model LG6100 lcd 42" Full HD 1080p 50,000 + 1 contrast. about £625 so at 50bht to 1 Gbp = 31,250Bht

You should be able to get this high a spec in Thailand for your Budget. Make sure the numbnut in the store knows EXACTLY what spec you want as they will sell you anything and tell you it is top of the range.

The higher the contrast ratio the better I would not settle for anything less than the above figure unless it was a 100hertz system LG do those as well.

Get your self a good Bluray player when you have a bit more money about 10,000bht for a good but simple one and your made.

Good Hunting

Would love to pay only 10,000 baht for a Blu-ray player here in Thailand. You might get away with paying 20-23,000 for a bog standard blu-ray player here.

I bought my mother in the UK a Samsung 7 series TV for Christmas, from Amazon .uk, I also priced up the exact same model in Thailand, I paid over 500 pounds less in the UK than I would have done in Thailand. So trying to compare prices between the 2 countries doesn't really fly I'm afraid, you have to take into account the exorbitant taxes lavished on electrical goods.

my uk bought laptop has stopped working

luckily enough its within the year

any one know a warrrenty dealer in chang mai

and any ramifications if I get it fixed by a non toshiba dealer

I think that you may have to send it down to Toshiba in Bangkok for repair, hopefully it will be under int. warrenty. Check up on the Toshiba web site, that should tell you where you can get it repaired, but I don't think there is anywhere in CM.

Good luck

What's it with PG Tips and half of the British population apparently being addicted to it? I bet you pour milk in it, too! Ah, there's nothing like the golden colour of a fine Olong, or the fragrance of a green Jasmine tea.

...which brings me to another question. Is there a specialty tea shop in Chiang Mai? I went through all of Twinings & Co. as well as the Chinese brands and I'm looking for something new now.

Cheers, CMX

Have a look at the small shopping complex at the Mandarin Oriental, there is a shop there dedicated to loose leaf tea's.

As with most things there I should imagine it as being quite expensive.

yorkshire tea

now your talking !

Yorkshire Tea Gold is superb.. better than PG

sadly, never to be seen for sale in CM.. (unless...?)

Rimping supermkt at Meechock used to carry the Yorkshire brand, but have not stocked it for a couple of years now. I did ask if they could order it again, as it was popular, but the request fell on deaf ears.

The last place I saw PG Tips was in Rimping supermarket, across from the airport plaza. There was none at Meechock branch.

It was near the top shelf where the teas are sold, near the small cafe area. I don't know if there is any more left now. You could also try Kaseems store on Neimenhiemen, (sorry about the spelling). Good luck.

The Duke's New Years special was "Veal Chops' from Australia that I was surprised to find tasted like the best British or American Beef and was also nice and tender. It was by far the best "steak" that I have ever had in S.E. Asia.

First I got one and then almost everyone at our table had one and everyone said that they loved it.

Hi UG,

Was this just a one off for the new year holiday, or can you exert you "bon homie" with the owner to get this put on the menu full time? (The waiter looked at me like I threatened to steal his Somtam when I asked for veal the other night!!)

Cheers

Mickmac

"Ulysses G. Posted 2009-01-02 08:39:27

Thanks Mickmac. Is that in Chiang Mai? Could you give us a hint on the price? "

Hi U.G.

The price was around 1400 baht, as I said my original posting, its a bit pricey.

I'll give the veal chop at Duke's a go in the near future, as I really like them, if done correctly. (I used to like the ones at Smith and Wallonskys in NY).

The Meridien, is the new hotel on the opposite corner to Duke's on Chang Klan.

Cheers

Mickmac