BarnicaleBob

My wife, nieghbors and I all had a great time at the River Market on the 4th. The special food menu we great and I was happy with the good taste and size of the food we ordered. I noticed that Michael and David were pitching in and helping the staff get the orders out to the tables thus making the event more enjoyible for us all. Considering this was put together in a short time frame, David did an outstanding job. Loved the fireworks and I hope this will become an annual event at the River Market.

I also noticed a large number of my VFW friends were there enjoying this event too. They were all happy that David stepped up to the plate and hit a home run with this event.

Not enough can be said about the people who do this good work to recover our missing military members from the Vietnam war. I'm sure this will bring some comfort to the families of these men and wish them well.

I wonder now just what kind of a mission a C-47 flying over Laos would have been on in 1965 that would have a crew of so many high ranking officers and high ranking enlisted men. Sounds very interesting.

It did not show on the screen but my bank chared me their normal fee plus the 150 baht fee. Must be they just have a problem with Bank of America.

There must be something I'm doing wrong, I get charged 150 every time I use AEON ATM machine. This has been true in the past and after reading this thread I tried it again last week at both the AEON ATMs at Siam TV and Tesco, it still charged me 150 baht.

Could this be because I'm using my American ATM card from BoA and they just charge Americans the 150 baht?

Is the location on the googlemap on expatnewsletter correct? I was unaware there was a river market there. So its just south of Chedi?

It's in the same location that the VFW holds their meetings. So here is a link to the VFW page, if you scroll down about two thrids of the way you will see a map to the River Market. http://www.vfw-chiangmai.com/

"a caucasian male apx 35yrs 180+cm 85kg lean/muscular build wearing a tan baseball cap, faded light blue T shirt, faded cream coloured cargo style shorts jumped from between the parked unnattended vehicles at that location, pulled his pants down to his ankles"

Wow, it's great that your wife had enough time to be so observant.

"He saw us arriving and as I started running after him".

It was my description of the offender.

I think it is good that you did report this incident in that it will help the rest of us to be aware of a problem in this area of the city. It is also good that you reported it to the police.

Someone said the man was harmless, I beg to differ on that. This behavior is consistent with a person who has deviant behavior on a degenerative cycle. I’ve dealt with rape suspects in the past almost all of them had histories following a cycle that started with being a peeping tom, then doing this sort of thing and after a few more steps sexual battery and in some cases sexual battery ending in homicide. We don’t need a deviant of this nature in our city.

So far four people have been found dead in their hotel rooms in Phi Phi and another seven in Chiang Mai, as well as two more in other parts of Thailand all within the past 3 years. God only know how many others have successfully swept under the carpet that we don’t know about. Also keep in mind these are for the most only the western tourist that we know about because the deaths of Thais in hotel rooms has not drawn any attention at all.

All these people have had the same similar deaths, vomiting and organ failure and in all case this came on while they were in their beds. In all cases no drugs or poison has been found in the bodies and the cause of death was organ failure.

It must be something in the environment or the hotel rooms, yet I never have heard of any protection or investigation or testing of beds and other things of the death scenes, the rooms they died in. Oh yes, maybe months later after the rooms had been cleaned and in some cases beds replaced. (In the case of the Downtown Inn, the owners remodeled it and then a few months after that they tore it down. WHY were there more deaths nobody knows about?) They need to secure the rooms until the investigation is complete the next time this happens.

At the very least Thai authorities need to recognize the above patterns and to act differently the next time it happens.

They need to at least find a name for these kinds of deaths; “Thai Sudden Hotel Death Syndrome” or something like that.

"The migrant workers can return after they deliver their babies," he said.

Makes no sense at all. What would make sense and what would be a lot cheaper to enforce would be to fine and jail the owners of the businesses that allow the children of their employees to help with the work. If they wanted to avoid arrest they could provide day care for those employees in need or pay a better wage so the employees could afford their own day care.

Again, the NGOs are correct in reporting this, the owners of the businesses should take the responsibility to fix the problem rather than having the government write new laws that will have little or no impact on the problem at all.

Here is a link to a news story about a similar incident that occurred in a two week time frame last year at another hotel in Thailand. Keep in mind that is only one hotel of several that these kind of deaths have occurred in Thailand since 2009. http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2011/05/tourist-deaths-bed-bug-chemicals-blamed/

Since that story was printed last year about the Downtown Inn, the owner of that hotel gutted it and totally remodeled it only to find some of the problem still continued to exist. Earlier this month the owners of the newly remodeled Downtown Inn gave up and the entire hotel was torn down. These chemicals are illegal in most counties including Thailand but some hotel owners continue to use them anyway.

Condolences to the family, this is a tragic event and my heart goes out to you. I have seen this happen before where I live in Chiang Mai at a hotel named “The Downtown Inn”. In the course of two weeks nine tourists became sick and five died in the same manner as these two young ladies. The police and health department dragged their feet and in time most of the evidence was gone.

Some facts, there was signs of some vomiting but not a great deal.

No signs of diarrhea so that ruled out most illnesses due to food poisoning and indicated that the cause may have been chemical.

What I found out about the Chiang Mai case is that prior to the deaths there had been complaints logged with the hotel about bed bugs in three rooms. These three rooms were treated with a chemical made for killing bed bugs. The directions say to apply the poison to the mattresses, let it sit a while then remove the poison and allow the mattresses to be aired out. It is my belief that the chemical was applied and never removed and then the rooms were rented. As the victims lay in bed they became nauseous and had pains in their chest. They went to the hospital and the doctors were not sure what it was and sent them back to their hotel room for more rest. They were starting to feel a little better but upon resting in their room it came back again. That night one girl died, two were hospitalized with one needing open heart surgery and a lady in the next room which had also been treated was found dead in the same way as the as these two young ladies in Phi Phi. It was found that two others had died in the same way about a week or so before. Since then there have been others who have claimed similar incidences but they could not be confirmed to be related.

In the end, the Downtown Inn in Chiang Mai was torn down.

My advice is to make sure the health department takes the mattresses as evidence for testing. At the very least if they find nothing it will eliminate one possible cause.

Here is a New Zealand TV news story about the deaths in Chiang Mai, give it time as there is a short commercial first then a 15 sec delay before the story comes up: http://www.3news.co.nz/Thailand-deaths-Evidence-Sarah-Carter-killed-by-insecticide/tabid/371/articleID/210265/Default.aspx

The Consulate can't ship the beer in via the canteen like they had done before. I guess someone got spanked for letting it happen in the first place so no beer via the consulate this year :>(.

In fact I do not believe the consulate is taking part in this event at all this year.

David has stepped up to the plate again in his support of Americanism and honoring all those Americans and their friends who live here in the Chiang Mai area.

I know the VFW called Creative Kingdom to offer assistance if CK was going to hold another 4th of July festival again this year and they for some unknown reason would not give a straight answer to that. They were asked to call back and never did. So after looking at the above banner with it's reference to 2011 I doubt Creative Kingdom is going to do anything.

I also spoke to David of the Dukes (who is advertised in the CK banner) and as of last Thursday he also said he had not been contacted by them. David did say that he may consider doing something at his new River Market restaurant for the 4th but he has not confirmed it as yet. I guess it all depends on if anyone else is doing something or not. At this point the VFW has not been asked to take part in a 4th of July celebration but many of it's members would consider doing so if given enough time.

I got tired of all the talk about people going out to look for Creative Kingdom's new location so I went for a look myself and found it on my way to where I thought it was. The location is about 800 meters north of the intersection of the 121 and the 1006 on the east side of the 121. You will know it when you see it because there is a 2x1 meter sign on the side of the road that has Creative Kingdom printed on it in large lettered English. Looking into the property there appeared to be two large buildings completed and in operation and a some more construction underway in other parts of the property.

Rummer has it that Creative Kingdom will be hosting a 4th of July celebration at this new location in July this year. However, I have not seen any advertising on it as yet and they have not returned my phone calls to them when I called to inquire about it. But if they do hold a 4th of July event there, it will be a good chance to see what they are doing out there.

Has anyone heard if Creative Kingdom is going to host the 4th of July Celebration again this year? If so, are they going to have it at the City stadium again or will they be putting it on at their new Creative Kingdom location?

Will the U.S. Consulate and/or the VFW be involved this time?

What is really important here, is that whatever happened will not happen again due the the demolition of this building. I think this will give at least a little bit of peace to the families of those who suffered and those who died. There will be no more victims.

The Tourist Memorial Hotel

A house in a moobaan is the best way to go. Now all you need is to find a moobaan that has good security. Some are very good and some are really lacking. However, at least in a moobaan you get to know your neighbors and they in turn take notice of strangers walking around that don't belong there (SOMETIMES).

At any rate a lot better than in certain areas inside the City.

So now the questions should be "Which moobaans provide the best security".

I renewed my retirement visa just a couple of months ago and they accepted the income affidavit without any questions.

The six of us, two neighbors, myself and our wives went to dinner there tonight and had a wonderful time along with a wonderful Thai dinner. The place is beautiful inside and is fully open to the river in a very attractive way. They had some nice Thai deserts on the menu but that was not what I had a feel for and I asked David if he had thought about having some of the good ol Duke's apple pie or cheese cake. He said no problem and said anything I wanted could be sent over so we had some. It was on our table within five minutes. All in one heck of a nice night out eating there.

I'm heading out the door now with two other couples to give it a try. It is a beautiful location right one the river.

Yes, I would consider it if quality ones could be purchased here and I (wife) didn't already own a home. By the way I owned one in the past located in Florida which is just as hot as it is in Chiang Mai and had no problems with keeping it cool. We call them mobile homes in America, the one I had was a triple wide. Meaning it was made up by joining three trailer units into one large mobile home 2,700 square feet of living space and the price was under $100,000.00 new and set up on my property. That's a lot more house than you can get here for the same price. So I would imagine that if they manufactured mobile homes in Thailand using inexpensive Thai labor you could get a pretty good deal on them here.

The park entry price is 20 baht, if you want to swim in the hot spring feed swimming pool it is an extra 50 baht, there are also as stated above men's and women's community bathing rooms. You asked if there were facilities for two people to bath in a hot springs feed tub. Yes they have little cabins with a bedroom and a hot tub in them that you can rent by the hour. These are located just behind the foot massage area which is near the hot springs swimming pool.

You can also go down to the hot spring pond where the water is hotter and buy some eggs to boil.

Enjoy

One important thing to remember, do not provide false information or tell any lies in your application. If they find you have done so it could result in your wife being black-balled from being granted any kind of visa.