just_Elaine

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear this... We met Larry/Ajarn at a TV gathering about 7 or 8 years ago, I think. It was on Loy Kroh at Phil's (I think that was his name) restaurant which had Lemon in the name. He was on TV quite actively then and always gave great advice. Larry - Thank you for your help... RIP.

I haven't been over there in a few years. Is it still yummy? Here is a link with Duc de Praslin address (Chiang Mai as well as Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya) for anyone needing it: http://www.gallothai.com/contact.php.

Thank you everyone. We ended up going to the one kitty corner from Big C on Hang Dong Rd (thank you Tywais for the picture). It was easy to find - turn left just after you pass Toyota and follow the arrows. The guy was professional and quick.

We'll probably go to pay the tax at the drive thru in Nong Hai (across from the Holiday Inn).

Elaine

Hi! I need to get our car inspected before we go pay the road tax, but I don't know where to go. Could someone recommend a place?

Thanks,

Elaine

P.S. I apologize if someone has posted this information before. I tried to search, but could not find anything.

Just FYI. We were there early morning on Sunday, Jan-22-2012. I had a crisp new $20 USD bill for two of us and we were told that they don't accept USD only Thai Baht. I tried to look for the sign that used to say how much, but it wasn't there. I also tried to ask when did that start, but didn't get an answer. Anyway, just fyi.

i think your problem is they don't accept 20 bills...ONLY ten dollar bills...that is what i heard them tell people one time...i have never yet had them refuse a ten bill..but maybe it has changed in the past ten days....

The guy said Thai baht. I actually had some $10 bills with me, but they weren't in as good a shape as the $20. The last time we were here (3 years ago), we had no problem with the $20.

SamMunich -- Thanks for the info. I didn't know that you could stay longer...

Thanks for posting this!

Just FYI. We were there early morning on Sunday, Jan-22-2012. I had a crisp new $20 USD bill for two of us and we were told that they don't accept USD only Thai Baht. I tried to look for the sign that used to say how much, but it wasn't there. I also tried to ask when did that start, but didn't get an answer. Anyway, just fyi.

I haven't had a housekeeper in awhile and the last one who worked for us didn't have any experience. Would you give me an idea about how much I should expect to pay for an experienced part-time housekeeper? How much do you pay for how many hours? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Elaine

If you want to use loose tea leaves, you can get a tea ball or snap mesh tea infuser. I got a snap mesh tea infuser at Central department store that I like. It is good for a single cup. I use one of these back home to sprinkle cocoa on top of cappuccino.

I happened to be looking for something at Hillkoff (coffee supplies) and noticed that they also have tea: http://www.hillkoff.com/product-th-676477-%E0%B8%8A%E0%B8%B2%E0%B9%81%E0%B8%A5%E0%B8%B0%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%B8%E0%B8%9B%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%93%E0%B9%8C+TEA++Accessories.html. There are a few with herbs...

Tire Shop on the Super Highway just past Tesco Kamthieng and the Volvo dealer (same side of the highway). Large Michilen sign on top. Owner is a very nice person and speaks excellent English. Excellent prices, free wheel alignment, and if you buy Michilen you will get a book of coupons in the post from Michilen - free rotation every 8,000 km and I believe one more free alignment, just present the coupon book at the same shop.

Thanks for the recommendation! We checked a couple of other shops, but the one you recommended was very professional and well equipped. The other two shops we checked into weren't very busy. This one had many customers. It was well run.

I saw your picture and IKEA popped into my head. There is an IKEA in Bangkok now. There is a website and it looks like they sell the "slatted bed base" separate from the frame. I don't know if they can ship.

I think the PunPun Superman breakfast slips in just under 150B after Thai Visa discount, though I'm not sure.

I would say Gecko Fish and Chips, but service was so bad last time I'm not in any rush to recommend it any more.

Subway goes down a treat when I'm craving western food, make it the daily special, foot long and you should be able to squeeze in a cookie under 150B.

Som Tam, Kao Niaw, Gai Yang (papaya salad, sticky rice and chicken - a whole one) squeezes in at less than 150B, west side of the moat, between 7/11 and Chiang Mai Ram does it well.

But really, my favourite dish for under 150B has to be Pad Grapaou Moo Kai Dao (laad kao) with a side order of Pak Boong Fai Daeng (that's fried pork with holy basil and a fried egg over rice with a side order of fried morning glory for newbies). Just so long as they don't tone the spices down for the white guy!

Do you have a recommended place to get good Pak Boong Fai Daeng (a really spicy one)?

CSS3 makes things so much easier with the likes of border radius and box shadow, text shadow etc..

I already use a lot of these things. I don't think it's a bit deal if someone is still using IE7 and seeing square corners instead of rounded. Having to use images for all shadows/corners/etc... is becoming a thing of past.

Also javascript like this: http://typeface.neocracy.org/ now makes it possible to embed custom fonts (mainly for titles/headings etc..) In the past you'd always have to use images.

JQuery makes animation easy. Most things that you used to have to use Flash for can now be done easily in javascript with JQuery .

Just recently did a tutorial on CSS3, but haven't used it. I thought one of the capabilities was if you store your font files on the server, it could load the font from there if the user didn't have that font. I remember it because I thought that was a great feature. Anyway, thought that I would mention this as an alternative to embed custom fonts.

"W by Wanlamun" has great pastries (French style). Perhaps go there for tea and pastries. They are on Chang Moi Rd. Soi 2. Phone: 053-232328.

Chai Blues mini concert at Boy Blues Bar tonight (Saturday) at 8.30pm.

http://www.facebook.com/events/236594026409207/

Was there last night.. If same format, Boy and the Band played for awhile. Chai came a little before 10pm. They played for awhile, then had a female singer for 3 songs and then back to Chai, Boy and the band. It was really good and fun. Chai said he and the female singer was going to there tonight.

Neo Entertainment is located on the 4th floor of Central Airport Plaza. It has a lot of high end equipment, but their website looks like they have less expensive systems. It's been awhile since we've been in there, but they are very nice and I think if you tell them your price parameters they will tell you what they have available.

To OP .. Just fyi -- I saw a video where Chai was playing at Brasserie around the 7th of November (I think) so maybe he is around Chiang Mai. We may go there tonight if we're not too sleepy.... It's hard for us "old farts" to stay up sometimes.

We went to Boy Blues Bar a couple of weeks ago. It was nice. He has different bass player and a different drummer now. They were good and they have a good location for attracting bypassers.

Thanks...

I took a peek at the NFL standings and I may be interested in watching some of the games. Is anyone showing them this year?

Thanks,

Elaine

nobody has said they eat pommellon the large green fruit the size of a football,when peeled it looks like a cross between a grapefruit and an orange,lychees are also one of my favourites but the last 2years have been poor.

Pomelos are good. We like them in a salad (Som O).

If I am here during the correct season, I would say mangosteens and mangos are my favorite. I, also, like passion fruit, pineapples and papaya. I don't think my preferences have changed much, but I eat more bananas because they taste so good here (both the large fat ones and the tiny fingerling like ones).

We have a house so we leave the car there. The wife's family plus our neighbours keep an eye on things for us (never any problems).

I do sometimes see secure storage advertised but it's not commonly available as per western countries ... possibly because it is so cheap just to rent a small studio apartment to use as storage. In other words you could rent a nice apartment to live in while you are here, and then just empty it into a thai worker studio apartment across the road while you are away. But then you would probably get a cheaper rate on the nice apartment on a 12 month rental (versus renting month by month) and this would cancel out any saving from relocating your gear for two months/year. With regards to the m/bike or car, well you could just leave that with me (pref. Harley or BMW)

I agree with ChiangMaiBruce about getting the 12 month rental. It can be kind of a pain to move your stuff back and forth. Regarding vehicles, we, normally, rented a condo with parking so that was part of our criteria when we rented a place. We paid a friend to check on our car and condo once a month. Also, we have him pay our water/electric bills. We either estimate the bills and give them the money in advance or give them access to an account (it has to be someone you really trust). Phone/internet bills we have paid automatically from our bank account.

Oh regarding the car, we have a steering wheel lock as we do not want something to happen and we end up being responsible. Also, we used to have the person start the car once a month, but then we got a battery charger so now we disconnect the battery. I don't know if you have to worry about that if you are gone for only 2 months. Hope this helps.

Did you find someone? If not, I have a phone number of someone I used several times, but the last time we used him was about 5 years ago. Since we have a car, we would only call if we can't hold everyone. I think he was charging 1100 baht per day at the time not including gas unless it's just around town.

I don't watch Fox News if I can help it and when if I do, I know I can't really believe what they say. When they report things incorrectly, I don't think they care! It drives me insane that they can put "News" in their name.

At the Kad Suan Kaew shopping mall on the 3rd floor called Amadeus Music. They have lessons and practice rooms. Also, a friend mentioned a place where her daughter went that is located on the behind Kad Suan Kaew called Santi Music School.

By the way, if you end up living in an area where you can easily catch a songthaew, I think it is pretty easy to hire a car and driver for the times that you want to explore or you could rent a car.