billyhouston

Tai (Shan) people in Thailand can be put into, roughly speaking, four different categories: !. Ethinic Shan who are full Thai citizens 2. Ethnic Shan, born in Thailand who have Hilltribe IDs 3. Ethnic Shan, born in Shan State (or elsewhere in Myanmar) who are legally in Thailand 4. Ethnic Shan who are living in Thailand without the correct papers. The first category are found particularly in Mae Hong Son which was, until about 125 years ago, part of Mawkmai State, one of the Shan States. It was ceded to Thailand in return for Thailand's giving up claims to some other areas around the Salween. The second category are not full Thai citizens, even though they were born in Thailand, as sometimes were their parents and grandparents. They lack freedom of movement and have to obtain permission to travel from their Hilltribe area. Those Shan legally in Thailand will generally have a work permit, but are restricted in the types of jobs that they can take. A large number fled back across the border as a result of recent Thai legislation. Those without proper papers are in a very difficult position. Recent legislation, subsequently rescinded for a few months, has greatly increased the fines that they and their employers face, as well as prison sentences. Presently they are having to return to Shan for ID verification, passports and, ultimately, work permits. Northern Thailand is heavily dependent on Shan workers both in the hospitality industry and in construction. Without them, these industries would grind to a halt.

If you like tasty Thai food in unpretentious surroundings, try Lemon Tree. It's on Huaykaew Road opposite the Shell petrol station, which also provides parking for the restaurant. If you're into Som Tam (Papaya Salad) you might try Udorn Som Tam on Soi Viangbua. It's about 100m beyond Viangbua Mansion or, for that matter, 150m beyond Adam's Apple.

15 or 20 years ago at Mingaladon they used to park the transfer buses (there were no air-bridges) in front of the very dirty windows of the 'Departure Lounge'. This was to make it difficult, but not impossible, to see the Mig-29s taking off. You couldn't miss the noise though. Unfortunately there is a proposal to build a new 'Yangon' airport just outside Bago.

Depends on the bus! There are several ways of crossing the border without a passport, which is why there are several million Myanmar citizens in Thailand. One is to go to an official crossing point, obtain a day pass and then 'forget' to go back. Danger with this is there are lots of Police Checkpoints on the Thai side near these crossings. Another is to cross the border where there is no official crossing point. The north of Thailand has ten or more places where people regularly cross (or should that be irregularly?). It's no big deal. There's a pretty regular 'bus' service through one of these, between xxx, Thailand and Ho Mein, Shan State. I'm not familiar with the crossing points in the west but I'm sure there are at least as many.

Loperamide is probably best known under the brand name Imodium. The Thai version has a splendid graphic which directly indicates its function. It stops the immediate problem, but does nothing for the underlying cause. An excellent local treatment, readily available and inexpensive, is Disento which treats the bacterial infection causing the problem.

BBC World Service is available on their 'BBC iPlayer Radio' app for Android. Along with much more.

The complete third season of 'Transparent' is available on rarbg.com for download in both 720p and 1080p form, if you are into torrenting.

I think the profile you are after is atthasit2533. This profile is still up, but the photographs have been removed.

Using those dates, the EVA web-site and going further into the booking process the offers were: AMS -BKK - AMS The first image was for both Econ and Elite, the second for Business. The only Economy fare appeared to be the ECO Flex. I then looked at the same dates out of LHR This time a separate set of Economy fares appeared. This is followed by Elite and Business LHR-BKK-LHR. It's worth noticing that the original Fare quoted of EUR 4782 was, goodness knows why, for out on EVA and return on China Airways. This is effectively two singles and we know how expensive they are. It's always worth checking the airline's own web-site when using a search engine.

At the risk of giving away my age, I remember watching an ageing Guy Lafleur coming up against a young Wayne Getsky in the Stanley Cup at the Forum in Montreal. Lafleur was approaching retirement... keeping things on topic.

My partner uses both DTAC and AIS (pre-paid). He mentioned only today, while visiting Mae Sai, that he gets 300MB of 4G on DTAC for 9 baht. This seems incredibly cheap.

Available on Kickass for those who use torrents.

For what it's worth www.asian-ephebes.com is available on True without problems.

It all depends on where you are. Happening to have two service providers at the moment I checked both 3BB and True, both of which gave the dreaded 'This video is not available'. Also having a VPN available, I connected from several places around the world and had no problems. Thai censorship I'm afraid.

At the age of fifty I had to choose between carrying on working and having more money or stopping work and having more fun. The decision didn't take long and I've never regretted it. If you have sufficient income for your needs, you don't need any more but the amount varies from person to person and can be difficult to ascertain! The great iniquities for UK citizens living in Thailand are the failure to index the NI pension (it's indexed in the States but not in Canada and some other Commonwealth countries... there's no logic to it) and the attempt to prevent their use of the NHS.

Like many Brits, I have been in the habit of obtaining my 'non-immigrant Category O visa' from the (normally excellent) Thai Consulate in Hull. In the light of the changes regarding the back-to-back visa exempt situation, I decided to take a look at their latest 'Additional Evidence for Non-Immigrant Visas' document. In comparing the document dated 15.04.13 with that of 10.02.14 I notice significant changes. The following are based on the documents which, presumably, reflect Hull's interpretation of the regulations: 1. Married to a Thai national. Additional documents required including copy of Thai Spouses ID card (or passport). There is also a requirement to show a regular income of minimum Bht 65,000 per month with the admonition that this may be checked 2. Visiting non Thai family working and/or living in Thailand. This category has been removed. 3. Visiting Thailand as Retired Person aged between 50 and 64 years. This category has been removed. Presumably those in 2 and 3 above are now required to get a Tourist Visa. There are also changes, in the same document, to the requirements for a Category B Visa: "Applicant taking up employment in Thailand with a company located in Thailand. Evidence required: a) Letter of Invitation from Thai company stating rationale for employing/hiring applicant and objective(s) of visit. b) Copy of Contract of Employment with Thai company stating position and salary to be signed by authorised Director and to include Company Seal. c) Copy of corporate registration documents from Thai company including:- 1) List of shareholders 2) Business registration and licence. 3) Company profile 4) Details of business operation 5) List of all foreign workers stating names, nationalities and positions 6) Map indicating location of company 7) Company Balance Sheet and Statements of Income Tax and Business Tax (Por Ngor Dor 50 and Por Ngor Dor 30) for latest year Alien Income Tax Return (Por Ngor Dor 91) 9) Value Added Tax Registration (Por Ngor Dor 20) 10) Copy of all pages (including blank ones) of Work Permit (if applicable)." Those of us old fogies in receipt of our NI Pension do not appear to be affected.

Driving in Bangkok is not for the faint of heart but, if you know where you are going, it's doable. It's less stressful in Chiang Mai where my biggest concern is the motorcycles. Because they seem to lack any instinct for self-preservation, it's very difficult to predict how and where they are going to move. By contrast, in Europe people are quite anxious to live to fight another day but perhaps Buddhism plays a part in SE Asia. Outside of the big cities driving is straightforward, due to lack of traffic, but it can be quite tedious where distances are large and the scenery doesn't change very much. Used with caution, satellite navigation on a smart phone can make life easier. Sygic provide a fairly decent Thai map (TomTom based, I believe) for a very reasonable price.

RAF VC10s had rear facing seats and that was for safety reasons, but it was a long time ago. I'm not sure whether the modern transport aircraft have the same configuration.

I find the price of Illy and Lavazza beans, especially the former, to be absurd in Tops but I figure Thais buy them because they are expensive. They have the idea that expensive is better and it's not easy to convince them that, in reality, it's better that is sometimes more expensive. There is a Dutchman in Chiang Mai who buys (Arabica) beans from the hills around Chiang Rai (I believe), roasts them and sells them as Alti Coffee. I not only use them in CM but brought a couple of Kg back to UK. There's also Hillkoff who, as well as having one of the best selections of 'machinery', mostly commercial, that I've seen anywhere also have an 'Italian Espresso' roast.

Much appreciated. Better we should have it than they.

A typo I think. Not even AirAsia (or Ryan Air for that matter) could get away with 19.5" 29.5"

Unless, of course, those involved were Members of Parliament.

The sentence was disgraceful, but are you surprised? http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,185060,00.html Chalerm is now Deputy Prime Minister and employed Duangchalerm in his ministerial office as far as I recall. TIT

The recently refurbished Centre Point Langsuan offers these Japanese devices. My partner and I were terrified that the 'wand' would gain a mind of its own and go beserk.

I always wondered what it was that made paras jump.... until one day I spent a couple of hours circuit bashing, with high cross winds, in a Herc. At least HM Government paid me to do that! Last DC3 I flew in was a Spantax aircraft between Spanish Mediterranean Islands and that was a long time ago. Spotted a large collection of DC3s at San Juan, Puerto Rico, about 15 years ago.