khunopie

Food here any better since my last visit?

Sorry JR,

I wasn't in a mood to do extensive writing that day I wrote that, but I needed to vent I guess.

Okay, well, been a regular customer of the new location. Took a friend by who also loved it and we were both having a few meals a week there together.

I worked in restaurants for a long time, helping manage them in L.A. and I know how difficult this field can be. However, my lat two visits have resulted in food very changed from its previous incarnation, the enchiladas, nachos, beans and tamales being of a specific point. The pre-prep on the food was too long in the one instance, the meat having dried to the point of being completely bland and of no interest once prepared for consumption.

Then assuming everyone always has an off day, I went by with some mates for a bite the other evening. There was a booming business going on and maybe this is part of the problem, as running a successful restaurant is often more difficult than running a slower one. We ordered nachos, guacamole and chips and beer. The nachos had almost no cheese other than some runny yellow mess that was I think Velveeta. The normal cheese being used previously was not in stock perhaps, I've no idea, but better to simply say we are out of the proper ingredients than what we were served. The guacamole was very thinned out versus the previous incarnations as well. Again, better to say, out of stock than put out an inferior product.

I will give this place one last shot this week and if the owner is in, I will have a chat. The day I was in and the food was really bad, and I d mean bad, put my wife off completely. The owner was there that day, but my wife was so pissed at me, there was not a chance to chat.

Also, and a last note, knowing how to cook food doesn't make a person a a host and expert at running an establishment. Sorry, but the gentleman needs to learn how to handle customers and be a host or find someone who does. This mainly relates to the day I went with my wife. I do not care to go into specifics, but suffice it to say, customers are valued gold in any business and deserve the best the place has to offer rather than being treated as if they are a nuisance.

Dr. B

I wasn't too impressed as well. Had 2 of the mini tacos and was disappointed to see the smallest bit of chicken sitting naked on 2 small soft corn tortilas.... for 80 baht! Even Sunrise does better than this!

At a Jamaica airport authorities were searching Oprah. When they lifted up her skirt they found 40 pounds of "crack"

Looking to take a Casino sponsored bus on Saturday? How? where? when?

Thanks!

Any one have info on these buses to Casinos?

Take the casino contracted air-conditioned bus from many spots around Bangkok, round trip cost B.200 for foreigners and B.100 for Thai, including free B.100 lunch.

This is the cheapest ever visa run.

Bishop

Any info on how and where to do this casino run?? Need to get out on Saturday... Thanx!

Thanks George. Is george your user name or your real name??

Is an Almond an international food?

my "TEERAK's" family goat got sick and I was asked for 30 thousand baht. Instead I gave it a handful of aspirin and now it seems to be fine.

My grandpa ate refrigerated bananas and now he is dead. True story. RIP grandpa Kong.

A few weeks ago a waitress tried to pull a fast one there when I paid for 1 beer with a 1000 baht note. She gave me change from a 500 hundred and insisted I had paid her 500. The mamasan or whoever had to step in and I got my correct change. This place has the same owners as country road on cowboy. Same thing happened there.

<deleted>! My local area connection shows I'm at 100 Mbps.

This is only the speed of the connection between your computer and the router on your desk. Consider it like having a super fast sports car but you can only drive as fast as the rest of the traffic on the road allows you do. The connection provided by your ISP, from your router out to the rest of the internet is probably the limiting factor, this is where your 60k is coming from. Continuing the road/traffic analogy, there is a super fast highway with vehicles going really fast between The USA and Japan, you want to drive your car on that highway to get data from the US - but to get there you have to use the slow congested sois provided in Thailand to get to Japan. Got the picture?

Got it>

Any recommendations for a faster Internet provider?

So, I used the thai visa internet speed test and came up with this result:

Download Speed: 60 kbps (7.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 60 kbps (7.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

<deleted>! My local area connection shows I'm at 100 Mbps.

I use TOT and pay around 690 baht a month.

Why am I getting "dial up" performance?

Too bad. I hate the restaurant side. The "taco stand" had better food and service IMO!

That's exactly how my plate might look at a buffet. I take tiny amounts of everything and enjoy the cornicopia of flavours. By the way, this is post number 69

Rather auspicious, wouldn't you say?

I thought the idea was to get wicked hammered on your birthday. If there's a will, there's a way....

Sure hope so!

Out of curiosity, how does sunrise get visas for all the filipinos who work there? Are they brought in as "consultants"? Taco engineers? Language teachers?

Ate at Charley Browns with a friend. We both had a couple of soft chicken tacos: absolutely devoid of any flavour! So I ask for hot sauce. The result: tobasco! The white trash of hot sauce... and no other available, so I declined the offer. I ask for jalapenos, and recieve a very small side bowl of them..... at 60 baht extra. Won't be returning. Their tacos don't even come close to Sunrise in price, taste and quality

Hard Rock Cafe is in Siam square... No view, loud band, some "working girls", but "night caps" galore, and easy walking distance. Gazebo: wouldn't the demographic there be middle eastern men?

The Sizzler in All Season's Place on Wireless road. The view back into the shopping plaza at lunch time really floats my boat. Hot tail everywhere.

Anyone know the best way to call S korea from a mobile phone? Thanks

Highly respected publication's look at the Men in Brown Tights....

The Thai police

A law unto themselves

Apr 17th 2008 | BANGKOK

From The Economist print edition

Reforming a corrupt and politicised police force will be tough

IN THAILAND'S most sensational crimes, the prime suspects are often the police. Among current cases are a group of border police accused of abducting innocent people and extorting money from them, and a huge car-theft ring thought to have been run by bent coppers. The prime minister, Samak Sundaravej, this month sacked the national police chief, Sereepisut Taemeeyaves, for alleged corruption. Mr Sereepisut insists he is the victim of a conspiracy by crooked subordinates.

Earlier this month the justice minister visited Chalor Kerdthes, a former police general serving life in jail, belatedly seeking progress on the “blue diamond” affair of the early 1990s, which wrecked Thailand's relations with Saudi Arabia. After the priceless gem and other jewels were stolen from a Saudi royal palace by a Thai worker, three Saudi diplomats seeking their return were murdered in Bangkok. The Thai police supposedly solved the case but the jewels they sent back to Riyadh were fake. Mr Chalor arranged the murders of the family of a gem dealer involved in the case. It is suspected he can dish the dirt on other former police chiefs.

Cases of police graft and abuse of power are legion. In 2003 Thailand's then prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra—a former mid-ranking policeman and businessman—told police to wage “war on drugs”, resulting in at least 1,300 extra-judicial killings. The army removed Mr Thaksin in a coup in 2006, promising a thorough investigation of the deaths. It had made little progress by last December's election, won by allies of Mr Thaksin.

In March the American government's annual human-rights report on Thailand criticised the widespread torture of suspects. Last year 751 people died in prison or police custody. Abuses by police (and soldiers) have worsened an insurgency in Thailand's mainly Muslim southern provinces, in which 3,000 people have died since 2004. Predictably, opinion polls show the police are widely mistrusted.

Experts say Thailand's force is not the world's worst: it does have some honest, capable investigators. However, for a country of a fairly high state of development, its record is abysmal. After decades of failed attempts at police reform, a panel set up after the 2006 coup proposed sweeping changes, including creating an independent police-complaints body. Some of the panel's reformists may be sincere. But this looked suspiciously like an attempt to curb Mr Thaksin's power base in the police. Now Mr Samak, although a supposed ally of Mr Thaksin, seems to be building bridges with army chiefs to bolster his own power. So his motives in sacking the police chief and talking of continuing the military government's reforms are also bound to be questioned.

Thai governments tend to rely on the army or the police (or both) to remain in power. So their commands have always been deeply politicised. Like other public institutions they are dominated by a narrow elite of families with tentacles everywhere. “You find the same few surnames wherever you look,” notes Michael Nelson, a political scientist in Bangkok. Indeed, Mr Sereepisut's replacement as police chief has the same surname as a former army chief—his brother.

Thai public servants are less loyal to the institutions that employ them than to their loose network of connections—relatives, ex-classmates from military training or old university chums. The 2006 coup pitted Mr Thaksin's schoolmates against those of General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, the then army chief. Police reforms elsewhere have generally succeeded only where a public-spirited and untainted political leadership forced them through. When will Thailand get that sort of leadership?

Mustaphamond:

Please..IF you quote, do it properly if you please, since I didn't write the quoted sentence in bold in your last message.

LaoPo

That's a BOLD statement!

But seriously, if getting really drunk on a beach could cause the death of 2 sisters than surely there must be hundreds if not thousands of corpses found monthly after koh Phanyang's full moon parties....

Went to Sunrise with some friends. They each ordered 3 tacos with guacamole. They were a bit "cheesed off" when they saw 150 baht plus tax on the bill for the guacamole. They were never informed there was a "luxury surcharge" of 25 baht/taco for the guac. when the filipino waiter took the order.... live and learn.....