hellyes2oo2

Manxninja, the shop you are talking about wasn't in sisaket, it was just down the road in uthom phon pisai. It was owned by a manxman, who was married to a thai girl. But as they spent most of their time back home, it was run by her family, big mistake went bust. Not a manxman myself but have lived there since 1984, now happily residing here.

thanks guys

Could anyone tell me the opening hours of the immigration office in sisaket cheers

I am a fully experienced bar manager looking for work anywhere in Thailand. I have 30 years experience in running a variety of bars from local pubs to sports bars. If you need a reliable 100% commited manager please contact me on 08710491734 thank you tony.

Oh my god guys, yesterday i called into peppers in Ubon, I asked if they had english bread, and the girl behind the counter assured me and my thai wife that they had. My wife asked them if the bread was sweet or not, and they assured her it was not, They then brought a large and a small uncut loaf from the freezer, we asked once again if the bread was not sweet, and the girl assured it was not. I bought 2 loaves, picked up my brother at the airport, and was looking forward to a great english breakfast today. We cooked the breakfast, bacon, egg, sausage, tomatoes, and black pudding, we sliced the bread, and sickenly it was so sweet we could not eat it. It tasted as if it used this vanilla flavoured butter that you can buy in cheap thai shops. I am very sad that an english baker turns out such crap bread.why o why.

Thanks guys, cardholder, I know what you mean, all thai bread seems to be sweet. I used to get english bread from a franchise in Big C in Sisaket, and it was good, but suddenly they seemed to change the flavour of the bread and now it tastes horrible. As for the uncut bread from makro, i have tried it, and i can only eat it when it is toasted. I usually go to staffords in Prassat, I find his bread is great, and also his bacon, but some say his pies are great, but I have to say for me, they lack moisture., and I don't like his sausages. I have also tried steve from buri ram, and i don't know what it is,but both of the pastry on these pies seems strange, i think maybe they use margarine instead of lard in their mix, but i understand it is hard to get lard here. Anyway i here there is a place called peppers in ubon, that have bread, can anyone tell me anything about it. Lastly, can anyone tell me where the 108 place is in surin, as i understand he sells staffords bread.

I have to go to ubon airport on wednesday. Does anyone know if there is anywhere in that area where i can pick up english type bread. if there is do you have fone number so i can order it. thanks.

Looking for some information if anyone can help. I am due to arrive in Bangkok early wednesday morning on the overnight train from Ubon Ratchatani.Then take a taxi to the airport to meet a relative. Can anybody tell me if the roads from the main train station to the airport are clear.Try as I may I cant seem to find any good reliable information from anywhere. Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi guys I need a Lawyer that can translate into english. I am selling a house back in England, and I have to send a copy of my passport, and driving licence to England. But it has to be verified by a thai lawyer here in thailand. I live just outside of Sisaket, but if there is no lawyer there then I can travel to Surin, can somebody please recommend a lawyer to me.

Stevoo, not really sure that the Nirun condo is that quiet.Everytime i have been there it seems pretty bustling. Having said that there a couple of good bars there. I don't know if Legends is still open. but that was a good place to go, before hitting the town. Also across the road was the Shagwell hotel, run by a character called darcy from Australia, a real 100% genuine guy, again don't know if he is still there. Over the years there have been a few so called suicides there ( but I use the word loosely ) bacause the deaths were suspicious. But I also know a lot of good people there that will swear by the place. I think you can probably get a decent room there for about 5-6,000 baht a month, and like I said there are a lot of characters there. Best of luck.

Ok so I know this has been closed before, but does anybody believe that sunee has the appetite to make the FC good again.I have offered help, but so far she personally has not responded.Brian has tried to do his best, but I think even he is a bit downhearted, because sunee has not showed to him that she has the heart to go for it. What about the few regulars who go there everyday, are they happy to see it go down the drain, or would they like to see it rise from the ashes, maybe rename the bar "the farang phoenix" I am just so sad that nothing has happened, that indicates that FC is on it's way back. So come on you regulars give us your thoughts.Finally I am amazed that on both the other threads we never had any imput from "Dave the Dude " I really thought he loved this place.

Would just like to ask "zzaa09" if he was born anti-social or if he worked at it. Because if he worked at it, then I have to say, GOD YOU ARE GOOD.A real plonker but good. Why do you think that anyone who wants to help another person, has an ulterior motive.I know I may have upset a few people with my original comments on here, and i'm still not convinced that a lot of the regulars want any change, but at least I apologised if I did upset anyone that I didn't know. Back to the topic. As i said i met "brimacthai" last week and we had a good chat, I gave my opinions on what is wrong, and we seemed to be on the same wavelength. I was disappointed that suni did not have any imput, but hopefully she will follow the suggestions made by myself and many other people on here that want her to revitalise the FC. Hopefully over the coming weeks things will improve and then it will become a good place to go again, but that doesn't mean it has to go back to what it was when martin was running it, it can be more successful by changing with the times, moving on and becoming something different.I would love it to become somewhere where everybody can go and enjoy themselves, someone commented that you can't be all things to all people, sorry to disagree, but you have to try to give a whole range of people what they want. For some it has to be an extention of their living room at home, somewhere they can come and relax, maybe read the paper, or watch tv.For others it needs to be somewhere they can come and enjoy some privacy, just by sitting alone without anyone pressuring them to do anything,for some a place to bring their wives or girlfriends and enjoy a meal and a drink, and for others it is somewhere they can go and let their hair down and have a really good time. But it is up to suni to create that atmosphere. Another thing that I think she needs to do ( especially during the football season ) is open later at night. Now I also realise that not everyone likes football, and i would suggest that she could maybe open the upstairs into a sports bar, with big screen tv, comfortable seating, and a small bar. Because it is not just for football, but all other sports that people might like to watch. And people that don't like sport have the option of staying downstairs. Anyway I just hope that everything works out for her, and all the regulars that have frequented the FC over the years, but remember don't be afraid of change, you never know you might just like it.

I was in there a few days ago with a couple of friends of mine. They had both been before, and enjoyed it.The place is a single shophouse type unit, very nicely decorated and very clean. The owner is actually back in switzerland at the moment, and his lady is running the place alone. she is a very friendly lady, and she actually remembered both of my friends name from their previous visit, which i thought was impressive. As for the food, it was very good, i had homemade lasagne and a homemade rosti, my friends had a sirloin steak with rosti, and the other a dish called black and white which consisted of a piece of pork fillet, and a piece of beef fillet served with a sauce and a rosti.we all agreed the quality was very good and the service excellent, on the whole well worth a return visit soon. By the way she also bakes her own bread which gives off a beautiful aroma as soon as you walk in the place. One slight problem, if you want a chicken dish it seems you have to order the day before, no idea why.

For those in Buriram, the Buriram Pie Man , has a fabulous range of English foods. Beef pies, Chicken pies, Curries , Sausages, Pork pies, Bacon, Fruit pies and crumbles, Cheese,etc.etc.

Not sure what this has to do with the FC but thanks for sharing anyways! Now I'm hungry!

I think afarang was just trying to point out that there are alternatives with regard to places to purchase "farang supplies".

ok so now here is my opinion of what is going on.Today i met with brian, and although he was in considrable pain from having a tooth extracted we managed to talk for a while.I also saw sunni, and it was for the first time, and to be honest i did not know what to make of her.Although she knew i had come to the FC to offer advice and help, and there were no other customers in the bar except my table it was almost an hour and a quarter before she came out to say hello.brian spent a lot of time listening to and generally agreeing with what i said, i really hoped that sunni would have more input.Just something i want to point out to all those doubters, brian has no ulteriour financial, romantic, or sexual agenda here, despite what others may think.So i have offered my experience to sunni, i have said that i will go and work with her for a couple of days, ( more if neccesary) All she has to do is ask.I am not a person on a mission, i know i am good at what i do, but it is up to sunni to either accept or decline my offer, it matters not a lot to me.I really think that the FC can come good again, but sunni has to be prepared to work very hard now, and put in long hours initially, to ensure that the place gets off the ground again.She has made a start by re-employing one of her former staff, people who frequent the bar will know who i mean.I know from experience that the FC can be good again, but sunni has to stop hanging on the the reputation, and memory of Martin, i don't want to sound disrespectful but he has gone, and they have to move on. the place needs to be spruced up, with a lick of paint, they now have decent staff, who with a bit of training can become really good staff, and i believe they now have three good cooks.I always make up my mind on people after i have met and spoken to them, and for me Brian seems to be a genuine person who really wants to help sunni turn things around, and i commend him for that.I understand that work has commenced on trimming down the menu from about 20 million items to probaly 30, so thats good.and there are arrangements to train the staff, so things are looking positive for the FC. So lets hope everybody gets together and makes it work, ( by the way i hear they have big plans for a relaunch party, sorry wasn't supposed to mention that ha ha.

As the starter of the original post(Farang Connection whats gone wrong) I am amazed at the responses of some people. Especially the vitriolic attack on "brimacthai" from "zzaa09" Is it inconcievable that someone may want to help a friend without there being a hidden agenda."zzaa09" has stated that no one should get involved with this man, but he has not given any reason why. If it cannot be posted here then i ask him to please feel free to pm me and let me know why.I have had contact with "brimacthai" via e-mails and he seems to me to be a genuine guy. I have offered my help, having over 20 years experience in running bars, and he has been very appreciative , and i hope to meet him in the next few days.So "brimacthai" don't drag yourself down to the level of this moron,ignore his stupid comments and do what you feel is right for you.By the way I have not seen anyone come on here to tell me what a good guy "zzaa09" is.

ok i was the op on this thread, and only wanted to state my point of view about what has gone wrong.I do not have a personal problem with the lady that owns the bar, because i have never met her.I have been there only a couple of times before, i met martin, and although he came across as a bit grumpy, he was a likeable guy.(rip martin)I was only pointing out that if you put out a menu, then please have the items available. someone said that if the trade has gone down, then maybe they could not carry all the items, thats fine, but then revise your menu to what you do carry.I then recieved some mild abuse from one of "the afternoon regulars" so i felt obliged to reply in kind,once again i don't know any of these guys, so i don't have a problem with them, so if i offended anyone then i apologise.It has also been said that if the owner is struggling to meet the needs of her farang customers ( who i think make up probably 99.9% of customers) then maybe she should get some advice from a farang who has run bars.I have run bars in the uk for almost 30 years, and i would be happy to give the lady any help and advice, i would willingly give up my time for free, because it would be sad to see what was once surin's most popular farang bar go to the ground.Once again if i offended any regulars i apologise to you all, and if anyone wants to pass my offer on to the lady owner please feel free to do so. Just a last thought in my opinion what would make the best farang bar in surin would be "norby's" that place has such potential, if it was cleaned up, get rid of all that stock and those awful plants, it could be fantastic, but last time i asked he wanted a stupid amount of money for a bar that was so quiet, just a thought.

So Mr Bronco, you think that anyone who thinks that the farang connection isn't great, has no right to voice an opinion.Well i think that you are wrong, so does that make me a moaner.Telling people that if you don't like something then go somewhere else is the usual easy option to solve the problem.When we were there on the saturday, there were about 6 other farangs sat around a table talking. So i can probably assume that you were one of these.So let me fill you in here, when we entered we ordered 2 large leo's, after about 10 minutes we asked for the menu,we spent maybe 10 minutes looking through it, before we asked for our food.As i have stated it took a few minutes before the waitress came back to tell us that the food we ordered was not available, we then spent a few more minutes before we ordered our second choice, at which point we also ordered 2 more large leo's.So 5 minutes later we were informed that our second choice wasn't available. We then took the menu again, looked through it, made a third choice, ordered 2 more leo's and waited for our food. About 5 minutes later we were informed that it wasn't available, at which point we decided to drink up, pay our bill and leave.So in the space of maybe 35-40 minutes we ordered 3 different meals none of which were available, and we drank 6 large bottles of leo.Now comes the good part, during the time we were there, the 6 farangs at the table never ordered 1 beer between them. So i figure if you guys sit there all afternoon having a nice chat and putting the world to rights, then you must drink at least a whole 12 bottles between you in 4/5 hours.So look at this from a different point of view,if the owners don't improve the service and food, they will close down, because what you lot spend won't keep them in business will it. Then when they have closed where will all you cheap charlies go for your nice chats, so maybe i should get a life, go to a bar for a long chat, then in a couple of years curl up and die, do me a favour. As long as i am paying for what i want, if i don't get it i have the right to complain. I understand that i am in a foreign country, i have been here for 8 years, living just outside of surin, but if a bar puts out a menu, with say 50 items on it, then they should make sure that they have enough stock to satisfy orders, i could forgive maybe running out of a couple of things but the farang connection is now bordering on the ridiculous.So Mr Bronco before you make stupid statements, think about what you are saying, but if that is to hard to do, then please don't say anything.

someone on here mentioned that there is a western style butchers shop in surin, could anyone please tell me where it is

I was in Surin on saturday with a friend, and at lunchtime we called into the Farang Connection to get some food. The waitress gave us the menu, and we both decided to have the roast beef dinner, so off she went, only to return a few minutes later to tell us they had no roast beef. So we went through the menu again, and to keep things simple we ordered fish, chips and mushy peas twice, off she went again,she came out of the kitchen, sat down at a table and we waited for our meal, a few minutes later she went back into the kitchen, then came to inform us that they had not got fish.So we gave it one more try, ordered the cheese and potatoe pie twice.And guess what....after a few minutes she informed us that they did not have any. So three meals ordered, nothing in stock, and when we said we would just finish our drinks and not bother eating we got a glaring look from the waitress as if to say i don't care. It is amazing how far this place has gone down, since martin passed, he must be turning in his grave.

bob owned the whole thing, and darcy was his friend and manager for many years.but at songkran this year they had a bust up, caused by bobs son.since darcy left the place has never been the same, and bob must now be sick as a parrot at his decision to let darcy go, all because of his son.i had many a good night down there and always stayed there whenever i visited pattaya, but i have not stayed there since darcy left.darcy was well liked by almost everyone, he is now working for another aussie guy, up near soi bukhaow and is doing really well.i was told a few weeks ago that they were thinking of changing the name from shagwell to the wombat hotel, but dont know if they did.one other thing as for all the customers being at lovejoys,i think not, look just how well lovejoy 2 id doing, empty rom opening to closing.Getting back to the shagwell i think bob needs to find someone with a whole lot of new ideas to get the bar back to what it was,someone with a lot of experience at running bars.

Hi Dave I appreciate what you are saying about there not being enough farangs around at the moment, but remember this was just 3 friends putting forward ideas on how he could improve his bar.The other thing is,we went in the farang connection when we were there just for a quick cuppa, and to be honest the place although clean really is lacking something, it is definately more a restaurant than a bar, and devoid of any atmosphere. We found the sportsman bar across the road a much more user friendly place, and we also noticed that they have extended into next door, so there must be some scope around there.As I am not a surin resident i can't really argue the point about how many farangs are around, but I still feel that Norbis has great potential, and as i recall the rent was not very high, so i hope he either has a go,or for his own sake before it eats up all his money he finds a buyer.

Hi guys apologies for my posting appearing twice something to do with the moderators not being sure if my message was promoting a business,anyway although my posts are worded slightly differently the message is the same

Last weekend on our usual fortnightly visit to Surin for a night out Myself and a couple of friends were looking forward to going to the "New Look" Norbi's bar.We ventured out at 7-30pm, ate good food at the Starbeam, had a drink in a couple of local thai bars, then at about 9-45-10pm we headed for Norbi's. Imagine our dissapointment when we found it closed, where was the live music he advertised on this forum.It seems obvious that Norbi is not suited to running bars( although I am told that he ran a great restaurant in Buri Ram).No disrespect to Norbi but running a bar takes an awful lot of commitment, and you have to be there as many hours as is physically possible.I have said on this forum before that his bar is in a great position, but only if he was prepared to open the same hours as all the surrounding thai bars.Later that evening my friends and myself were discussing what Norbi could do, and we came to the conclusion that he has 2 options.Firstly he can continue as he is at present, struggle on, and eventually probably close down.His second option, and the one we felt would be his best one, was to go the whole hog(shit or bust) extend his opening hours,put on a full farang menu, and really go for the entertainment option, regular live music,a good choice of music cd's when no live music, and also some nice ladies in the evening, and these ladies don't have to be your usual bar girls, just pleasant ladies to speak to the customers(obviously if the customer wants more that is up to the ladies).But most importantly he needs to employ an experienced bar manager to run the place for him.Someone who will communicate with his customers and listen to what they want then do his best to provide it.Norbi may say that he can't afford to pay a manager, but in all honesty can he afford not to.I have run bars in England for 30 years, so I think that I know what I am talking about,and as I have said I mean no disrespect to Norbi, but it takes a special breed of people to run bars, it is a job you either love or hate, there is no in between in this game.In fact it is not a job it is a way of life.Just a couple of last points, firstly get rid of all those plants outside and open up the terrace, and secondly find somewhere else to put all that stock that is cluttering up the bar and making it look very untidy, oh and get a big screen tv for sport.I would love to speak to norbi and offer him some advice, so if anyone reading this knows him, then please feel free to tell him to pm me.Once again no disrespect to norbi, because anyone who opens a service industry business deserves all the successs they get.

The ageing of meat really needs to be done before the meat is boned out.Once the animal has been slaughtered it needs to be hung on the bone for around about 21 days. Although after that amount of time when you look at the beef you may be put off because it may have turned black on the outside, and maybe even feel a little sticky, please don't worry all you need to do is bone the meat out remove a small thin first slice, and then you will have prime aged beef that will give you the utmost pleasure when you eat it, as long as it is not thai beef ha ha.

Hey Kopite, if you read my post I tell you that I have run bars for almost 30 years back in england.I did not mention in my post that "Shennanigans" in Jomtien was losing money.I have only ever been in the place twice, and what I will tell you is that on both occasions,once at peak lunchtime on a thursday, and once on a Saturday evening around 8pm, both times the place was very quiet( not even a dozen customers), and totally lacking in atmosphere of any kind, so I would have to reserve judgement on if the place is making money.But maybe you know better(maybe you are the manager, if you are please come clean and say so).I hear from friends that the General Manager of Shennanigans is from Australia, as is the Manager of the Jomtien branch, so maybe this is a case of jobs for the boys, and not the best man for the job.I will stand by my statement that the reason so many bars(and maybe other business's ) fail is because the owners come to Pattaya thinking everything is easy, don't put in the hours or the effort needed to make it work, and ultimately fail.