A Singaporean's guide to living in Thailand

[Jah_rastafar_I]

This restaurant not so bright

You can turn up the exposure but you need photo editing software. It can be a bit time consuming and different software have different settings the best free software would be gimp2 the best paid one is adobe lightroom or photoshop.

 

[Froggy]

Baywalk Mall and condo at the north of Jakarta



Homes with their boats at the back

 

[AhMeng]

nice shots... good cam sia!

 

[Froggy]

nice shots... good cam sia!

iPhone 6+ (gay phone)

 

[VPutin]

iPhone 6+ (gay phone)

thank you. me likes.

 

[AhMeng]

IPhone 6 not bad for scenery shots! Good stuff!

iPhone 6+ (gay phone)

 

[Froggy]

Just opened this Malaysian BKT known as Sun Fong







This seems to be the hokkien type where the soup is dark and packed with Chinese herbs, quite nice.



The rib is great, drops off the bone easily



Pork leg



This is something new, dry bah kut teh, have to say it tastes great as they fry with strips of dry cuttlefish

 

[Froggy]

Baywalk Mall at night



Rich man's toys

 

[yinyang]

No to xmas gifts? Satirical editorial piece on giveaways which doesn't mean real value to masses

Gifts? Not really
Bangkok Post Published: 12/12/2014 at 01:55 PM

I am already feeling suffocated by the weight of the New Year’s gifts being heaped upon me by various ministries responding to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s desire to "deliver happiness" to the Thai people.

Honestly, I admire their efforts to appease us, although many of the gifts to be offered are insignificant and demonstrate their lack of imagination or initiative. But happiness?

Let’s take a look at the various New Year’s gifts to be offered:

Transport Ministry: waiving of toll fees from Dec 26 to Jan 4 on the Bangkok-Chon Buri and Ban Pa-in-Bang Phli motorways and Bang Na-Bang Pakong-Bang Na expressway; free wi-fi on new city buses courtesy of the BMTA; an additional 10kg weight allowance for luggage on board THAI flights.

Industry Ministry: the staging of a gifts fair.

Commerce Ministry: a grand sale of consumer products at all shopping malls, department stores and even 7-Eleven convenience stores.

Ministry of Natural Resources: free entry to all national parks.

Ministry of Sports and Tourism: No service charge for the use of ATMs to electronically transfer money.

Department stores' regular end of season clearance sales don't really rate as a 'gift of happiness to the people', says Veera.

Finance Ministry: 5 percent income tax cut for SMEs which have net revenue less than three million baht a year, and tax free for SMEs that earn less than 300,000 baht a year. Nano finance of up to 120,000 baht for the poor, but with an interest rate of 36 percent.

Even a committee of the National Reform Council does not want to miss the happiness bandwagon. Its idea is to set up a non-profitable state retailing enterprise to sell cheap consumer goods to the public.

The above mentioned "gifts" are just a fraction of a lot more to be announced in the coming days before the New Year. We are yet to hear what the Education Ministry will offer as gift to students and parents. But don’t expect the minister to announce the end of the "tea money" problem in schools, because you will be disappointed.

What gift will the Energy Ministry have to offer? The minister said the other day that the price of LPG for transport should be increased to discourage motorists from fitting their cars with LPG tanks. What he did not, or was unwilling to mention is when the retail pump price will be substantially cut to reflect the real global market trend of crude oil prices, which have steadily dropped to the lowest in five years -- instead of a reduction of 40-50 satang per litre at a time.

Probably, he didn’t want to upset PTT, the local oil giant which has near-monopolistic control of the local oil industry. Or maybe he is krengjai with the PTT.

Grand sales of consumer products have been held at the yearend in every shopping mall for years. So, there is nothing special about that. The only thing different is that convenience stores like 7-Eleven will also take part, but it remains to be seen how much discount they will offer.

These New Year "gifts" are not really significant, and most of them do not qualify as gifts that will bring happiness - not for me at least. The only group of people who feel good about their gift from the government appear to be the two million government officials who will get a 4% salary rise backdated to Dec 1. Those who are classified as "experts" will get another 4% and the pay ceiling will be raised by 10%.

If the government really wants to make the people happy, then it should announce a substantial cut in retail oil prices.

It is indeed beyond comprehension that while crude oil prices have dropped about 50% since their peak five years ago, retail pump prices have been reduced modestly by 30-50 satang/litre once in a while. No wonder PTT’s profits keep ballooning. Now there's a gift that keeps the rich majority shareholders happy.

 

[Froggy]

Power breakfast today

 

[Froggy]

Went to a really local shop at the west of Jakarta. It called ketupat tahu, which to me looks and taste like our longtong.

In Indonesia they also have longtong as in the compressed rice is cylindrical like ours while this stall served ketupat.



Once can also choose yo have fish, fried chicken, eggs etc to go with the ketupat as side dish


The basic plate which is really enough for a meal as the ketupat is very big type, this costs 12,000 IDR or $1.20


Extra, the brown is taugua while the black is beef, with egg


Our pretty host


Inside of the shop

 

[Froggy]

Bangkok weather is really sabai sabai. Miss it, want to quickly get back

 

[Froggy]

Can't sleep so got up just before sunrise and took some photos from 3 directions at 3 different times

 

[Froggy]

 

[Froggy]

 

[yinyang]

Peak tourist season, domestic and foreign

Party's on in Bangkok for New Year
Bangkok POst Published: 19/12/2014 at 06:00 AM

Bangkok is the world's 10th most popular destination among global travellers looking for a place to celebrate the New Year holiday, says TripAdvisor, the world's largest travel site.

An aerial view of Bangkok's Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn) on the Chao Phraya River. TripAdvisor has ranked the Thai capital as the world's 10th most popular destination for international tourists for the New Year holiday. Krit Promsaka na Sakolnakorn


Meanwhile, Chiang Mai is the top destination of Thais for their New Year celebration. Destination rankings were based on TripAdvisor searches for the New Year holiday period from Dec 27 to Jan 4.

Jean Ow-yeong, head of media relations at TripAdvisor Asia-Pacific, said Bangkok was the only Asian destination making the top 10 thanks to its attractive costs. London, New York and Paris were the top three favourite destinations, in that order.

The average room rate for three- and four-star hotels in Bangkok during the New Year period is expected to rise by 18% to 2,499 baht a night.
London will see a 5% rise in the average room rate to 8,441 baht a night, New York 18% to 13,435 baht and Paris 5% to 8,010 baht.

TripAdvisor said Thai travellers favoured local destinations over international ones, with seven Thai locations in their top 10 including Chiang Mai at No.1.
The popularity of Chiang Mai will see the average room rate of three- and four-star hotels in the northern capital surge 61% to 3,001 baht a night.

After Chiang Mai, the next most popular destinations are Hua Hin and Bangkok, where room rates during the New Year period will average 4,999 and 2,449 baht a night, respectively.

TripAdvisor said Hong Kong was the most popular international New Year destination for Thai travellers. But any traveller planning a trip to Hong Kong should be prepared for sticker shock. The average room rate during the New Year festival will be 17,195 baht a night, a whopping 194% higher than the average rate throughout the rest of 2014.

At home, cooler weather, falling oil prices and the extended New Year holiday period have led to predictions that revenue from domestic tourism will be at least 6.5 billion baht during the five-day weekend, said Anupharp Thirarath, deputy governor for domestic tourism at the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

He predicts 1.7 million domestic trips from Dec 31 to Jan 4. Average hotel occupancy over the long weekend will be 70-80% nationwide, down only slightly from last year's level. Falling oil prices are expected to help boost domestic tourism, particularly automobile travel to within a 300-kilometre radius from Bangkok, Mr Anupharp said.

Popular destinations include Rayong, Chanthaburi, Trat, Hua Hin, Chumphon, Nakhon Sawan and Khao Yai.
Yutthachai Soonthronrattanavate, president of the Association of Domestic Travel, agreed lower oil prices would benefit domestic tourism.

 

[Froggy]

Thanks YY. Me New Year not staying put, getting outta there to a small remote island outside Thailand.

 

[yinyang]

Me New Year not staying put, getting outta there to a small remote island outside Thailand.

With samba grass skirts? And a native floozie to boot? :p

 

[Jah_rastafar_I]

jurong east kopitiam

At macpherson to eat kway chup

 

[Jah_rastafar_I]

Nice dinner at commonwealth area

yam cake dish

luo han gai

egg dish

spicy black pepper chicken

washed down with anchor beer