LadyinRed

From Kata towards Chalong about 20-30m before the circle on the right side (next to a green Pharmacy sign), the chicken rice.

Through the circle towards Phuket Town on Chaofa East, Hua Soi thai kitchen next to the Chalong poilce station.

A bit past the police station next to the purple Siam Commercial bank, the duck noodles.

Down the road past the yellow Ayuthaya bank next to gold shop (big red signs), the prawn/ pork noodles (Chinese-y style; full of Koreans).

Further down the road opposite the Flints-one bakery is the kanom jeen shop (their 'haw mok' to die for).

If you are on Chaofa West road, opposite the Honda showroom (where to road leads towards Kathu/ Wichit Police Station), there is a pork noodle/ rice shop; they serve satay as well.

Apologies if I've missed this, but I'm interested to hear which school are washing their hands of any responsibility this time. Anyone know? An all too reoccurring theme in Thailand.

There's too many of these shysters operating with impunity and without any form of rigorous regulation. Their philosophy is to pay and provide their teachers with as little as they can get away with, hence the probation with no cover BS - if you're qualified then why the probation? If not, why employed? Besides all this, if you are employed by said company then company is required to provide medical insurance, end of!

Same goes with providing an 'international' education to their unaware young students. They truly are despicable places these cash cow establishments.

Same here - as a parent I'm curious to know the school he was going to work in.

There's an active and very social dragon boat club in Leam Ka beach/ Rawai.

The White Chocolate + Blueberry cheesecake from Delish is pretty wicked. Delish is located at the Fisherman's Way in Rawai.

Reminds me of the story of a young Thai boxer being savagely beaten and left for dead in Nai Harn as well.

I just renewed my 5-year 2 days ago.

I enquired a day before I went, and the information lady said:

- Need doc's cert

- Copy of passport: face and visa pages

- Be there before 9am

I went there at 8.45am and the same lady said I need a proof of residence from Immigration.

I told her I saw her yesterday and she said I won't need it.

Then she asked if I have a work permit, which I brought (the original and copies) along.

She was satisfied with that, and told me to go to the last room for the lights and pedal tests.

After that I got a queue number to pay at the cashier (500++ THB).

After paying I was told to go to a booth where my photo was taken.

Five minutes later, I was given the new licence.

I left the building before 10am.

Hope that helps.

Dr. Paweena International Clinic- a unit in the rows of shophouses opposite the 'Korean Town' supermarket. If coming from Hayeak Chalong go past the big Nabon traffic light junction (where east and west Chaofa roads connect) and it is on the right side. If you see Tesco on the left you've gone too far. 076 245761

Nice one thanks for sharing!

Overall, I must say that the number of votes is rather thin compared to other regions where we ran similar polls. On the other hand, the amount of bickering in this thread was higher in Phuket than elsewhere.

Organizing such a party is quite a bit of work...are you guys really interested? We are happy to do something, but if only 15 people turn up in the end it would be a bit sad.

So....interested? yes? no? Anybody out there?

Yeah well I suspect the numbers may be higher than 15 but given the sad state of posts perhaps some opt out, but dam_n it, 15 gems is better than nothing at all - I want to drink!!!

I am very happy with this Harmon Kardon unit.

every book or just the ones no one want? Those expensive cookbooks might be worth buying at 40% off, unless they upped the prices 40% before offering the discount.

Hi Hostile17, yes 40% off on all books, including those expensive cookbooks, big pictorial hardcover ones, and even kids' books, encyclopedias, etc.

I love the concept of library. Functional library is one of the few things I miss from my home country.

Really good books are written to be read by larger audience. We wish to educate ourselves, read books, get the information and then remember what was said.

Sometimes we want to own the books, which will give the money for the author. Sometimes we just wish to read the ideas inside.

Could we do an functional library here in Phuket?

We could donate books to the library for other to borrow, after we have read the items. We already have some ok libraries in the island. Do these libraries accept English books as donations?

I could bring some of my books to Thalang library if they would put those to their selves.

Likewise, a library is the one thing I miss most from home - the closest thing here to a functional public library is second hand/ book exchange stores.

Oh, and one more that just got into my Facebook: Wcafe is offering free coffee tasting at Friendship Beach today (26 May 2012) between 11am - 4pm. Friendship Beach's restaurant is also offering 20% off their food and beverage for orders taken during the coffee tasting. According to the Facebook post, you can pick up the discount voucher from Wcafe's stand at the restaurant.

i'm wondering if this is ever going to end. someone in charge just (wo)man up, pick a place and date and get on with it.

asking people is kinda stupid, opinions are like a-holes, everybody has one.

Agree with you though, simply pick a venue and date, announce the ground rules, and people can confirm (or not) their presence.

I said this at the beginning of the thread. I gave it as well intended piece of advice and got ripped apart and accused of bickering and the like.

Since then about 5 other people have realised that it was good advice and have posted the same. But they're not bickering of course, only me.

So HKP are you going then? You didn't even vote... (as of 25/5/2012 8.09pm)

Well I thought I'd share the fact that B2S at Central is having a storewide 40% off on books till 31 May 2012. I don't go to Central much so I took this opportunity to snap up early b'day + xmas gifts, etc.

Please explain what the 3 flags mean. Red, yellow, and red over yellow.

As I understood the area between red+yellow flags are patrolled by lifeguards so it's ok to swim between these flags.

Plain red flags means danger do not go in, etc.

Yellow- I am not sure.

I am curious to know if there is an 'international' standard to the types of beach flags to use or is this determined by a country/ region basis? E.g. In Australia you can swim between red+yellow flags, but in Nai Harn the waves were roaring with white boiling fury between the red+yellow flags and I did not see lifeguards in the tower (granted perhaps they were not in the tower per se).

BTW... has ANYBODY heard the TSUNAMI Towers working ANYWHERE on the island last week ???

Nai Harn Beach and Rawaqi Beach Towers not working, even if there is no Tsunami, the WARNING Towers should work...OR NOT?

I was in Rawai last week and can confirm that the tower there sounded before we were told to evacuate.

OK I will retract on my earlier post to HKT because I just saw the 2004 in the subject line; though it still feels like how Titanic is being exploitedlikefark retold/ re-visited/ 3D-ed to no end no matter how its still fascinating for some.

Standing on 200 year road Patong. The first we knew was the bangs of what turned out to be the electricity poles shorting out. At the time I was convinced (and others thought the same) that a gun man was running around shooting people. It's funny how the brain takes in all the information and comes to the best conclusion it can. With the bangs and the people running that's all I could think of.

The next thing was knee deep water moving fast and carrying cars and people coming around the corner. No danger by then though all the impact had been taken by the beach road.

Had changed plans to be on Phi phi for boxing day only two day earlier!

Today was a nice reminder that devastation on that scale will never be seen again on Phuket.

Seriously? I propose to close this sensational thread...

^ Saying where you were isn't sensationalising it in any way.

HKP: I was hoping you'd look at this in a way such as this:

01. This original post was made about 9.30pm - a good few hours when the earthquake happened.

02. Your account of the situation which you described you were in is scary, yet to me, and most I know, nothing much drastic happened (not to put down on what you had experienced though coz I am not in your area)-

03. there were mentions of knocked out electricity poles, electircity poles, people running about, knee deep water, the possibility of a gun man, etc.

04. You also possibily indicated that I was whining about bringing a topic being 'sensational'..

So, that is all really I have to reply to this- I am just v. glad we now have a very effective warning system in place that brings early and effective warnings which keep us all away from what could/ will be a castrophic disaster scenario.

Seriously? I propose to close this sensational thread...

I'd like to add: takeaways.

For a while now I have a couple of empty plastic/ microwave boxes in the car in case I want to pack food home. You do get the odd looks but your food box that the chicken rice goes into saves a plastic bag that lines a styrofoam box, another plastic bag for the soup, two smaller plastic bags for the soy + chilli sauce, plus another bigger plastic to put them all together. This way I've avoided putting five assorted sized plastic bags and a styrofoam box in Phuket's landfill just for a meal.

Those aren't poisonous but their stings can be nasty, even for the small household ones that like to hide in your closet or fall onto your face when you sleep - the best cure for those stings is to rub aloe vera on the bites.

But in the short term, I have a two year old who needs a cool preschool. Any more suggestions?

If your wife is Thai and you speak English at home then I see no harm in your kid going to a Thai preschool in the beginning - mainly to get a solid foundation for the Thai language. Thai Hwa, Darasamut, KJK are all decent kindergartens. If you see your child needs more challenge in English as he/she gets older then you still have plenty of options to go into for the higher levels. We took the plunge straight into the international school system and sadly our child's Thai language capability leaves a lot to be desired compared to his peers from a Thai kindergarten/ preschool.

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/

http://failblog.org/

I hear there is a Thai Association at the Orchard Towers but not sure how active they are.

Everyone just please stay safe, sane and calm!

Does anyone here actually give to beggers? I did occasionally in the fresh market to the old guy with no legs...

Tourists will and that is the whole idea. Tourists are not aware of the scams.

Does this mean that all beggers are part of scams along the lines of Slumdog Millionaire for example? I am aware of scams but couldn't there be some of them who really are left out by society and depend on people's compassion to survive?