Makan in Thailand

[steveluv]

Dinner at a very nice Thai restaurant pub

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5jYYqFxFas

 

 

Pork neck meat fried

 

Somtam

 

Minced pork with Thai herbs

 

Seafood salad

 

Seabass with fish sauce

 

Pork jerky

 

Cashew

 

Salad

 

Sweet and sour seabass

 

Chicken wings with lemon grass

 

Fruits

 

More drinks

 

Preparing our drinks

[Angcheek]

 

Dinner at a very nice Thai restaurant pub

 

 

 

waaa 3 XMM to prep drinks ............. so envy . 

 

Got nice drinks , got nice food , got nice views somemore .......... 

 

when can bring me along  ? 

[Hoseyboh]

waaa 3 XMM to prep drinks ............. so envy .

 

Got nice drinks , got nice food , got nice views somemore ..........

 

when can bring me along ?

Hahaha....@Ash2017 chope liao......

[steveluv]

Found a nice hotel in Jomtien beach yesterday room is very big, clean and comfortable.

 

Welcome chrysanthemum drink, cold towel and beautiful leelawadee flower, very refreshing after a 2.5hrs drive

 

 

The room

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l06KXg8074

[steveluv]

Very relaxing breakfast, beautiful lobby and dining area

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2IXNqrH0IY

 

 

 

 

 

Thai noodle breakfast

 

Relax

[Datsun366]

My fascination with Thailand aside from the food are two unique facets of their culture. Diametrically opposed but strangely complementary.

 

 

 

Thai women volleyball rocks.

[steveluv]

I may come to Pattaya often however I rarely visit Jomtien area as I am used to Pattaya North and South are but this time I thought I stay here to experience

 

Driving along the Jomtien beach to go lunch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUcrpmQO51g

[steveluv]

My fascination with Thailand aside from the food are two unique facets of their culture. Diametrically opposed but strangely complementary.

 

 

 

OMG I didn't know wai kru ram muay is so graceful when done by a female, kindda sexy. (but I'll hate to get a kick from this lady)

[steveluv]

So I was driving to Bacco Italian restaurant in Jomtien beach, this is my first time to this restaurant as I googled pizza in Jomtien and this was the recommendation

 

Huge and relaxing restaurant I must say

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxSQ4CDpQg4

 

 

Lazy and hot afternoon, we had a bottle of white wine and some minestrone soup

 

Fresh salad

 

Meat laden pizza

 

Mussels

 

Nice and relaxing view

 

[steveluv]

It takes a local to bring you to a very local place like this if not, especially as a foreigner, one will never know.

 

I was suggesting to a local (as in Pattaya) fellow Singaporean to have a light dinner at my favourite Thai khao tum (boiled rice) place, Chok Anand, where they serve plain khao tum (boiled rice) can order many different Thai/Chinese dishes which will be freshly cooked. This type of food is similar to Teochew porridge except most of the dishes ordered will be freshly cooked.

 

Its a funny name, restaurant up in the north of Pattaya in a place known as Naklua

 

The shop front

 

Inside sitting with cover

 

 

Outside sitting at the back of the restaurant

 

Minced pork fry with chinese olives

 

Braised duck

 

Glass noodle with seafood yam (salad)

 

Stir fry vegetables

 

Clams stir fry with herbs

 

Salted egg yam (salad)

 

Omelette

 

Seabass fry with fish sauce

 

The meal

 

The kitchen

 

 

Chief chef

 

Meal costs 1,005 baht or $44 (minus the whisky of course but include drinks and 3 buckets of ice)

Edited March 3, 2019 by steveluv

[Tohto]

 

It takes a local to bring you to a very local place like this if not, especially as a foreigner, one will never know.

 

I was suggesting to a local (as in Pattaya) fellow Singaporean to have a light dinner at my favourite Thai khao tum (boiled rice) place, Chok Anand, where they serve plain khao tum (boiled rice) can order many different Thai/Chinese dishes which will be freshly cooked. This type of food is similar to Teochew porridge except most of the dishes ordered will be freshly cooked.

 

Its a funny name, restaurant up in the north of Pattaya in a place known as Naklua

 

The shop front

 

Inside sitting with cover

 

 

Outside sitting at the back of the restaurant

 

Minced pork fry with chinese olives

 

Braised duck

 

Glass noodle with seafood yam (salad)

 

Stir fry vegetables

 

Clams stir fry with herbs

 

Salted egg yam (salad)

 

Omelette

 

Seabass fry with fish sauce

 

The meal

 

The kitchen

 

 

Chief chef

 

Meal costs 1,005 baht or $44 (minus the whisky of course but include drinks and 3 buckets of ice)

These are for how many person?

[steveluv]

These are for how many person?

 

3 people, a Singapore friend who live in Pattaya and a Thai friend. Food may be a little too much so friend tahpow home.

Edited March 3, 2019 by steveluv

[Tohto]

3 people, a Singapore friend who live in Pattaya and a Thai friend. Food may be a little too much so friend tahpow home.

Your photo I saw 2 porridge.

But this dishes for 3 still a lot. Unless in China, like norm there.

[steveluv]

Your photo I saw 2 porridge.

But this dishes for 3 still a lot. Unless in China, like norm there.

 

Actually there were one more porridge and one rice on my right which is not in the photo.

[steveluv]

Japan's discount king Don Quijote makes splash in Thai debut

Cheap prices and flashy displays lure crowds to maverick retail chain

MARIMI KISHIMOTO, Nikkei staff writer March 03, 2019 03:49 JST

 

 

BANGKOK -- Hundreds of shoppers queued for the opening of Japanese discount chain Don Quijote's first Thai store in Bangkok late last month, eager to experience the outlet's eye-popping array of items, from cosmetics and clothes to appliances and toys.

 

"I visited [Don Quijote] when I traveled to Japan, and I'm really happy they've opened a store in Bangkok," said 42-year-old Boonyanuch Buaban as she waited in line.

 

Don Don Donki, as the store is called in Thailand, is among more than 30 other tenants at Donki Mall Thonglor, a shopping complex launched on Feb. 22 by Pan Pacific International Holdings, operator of the Don Quijote chain.

 

The store is a carbon copy of its namesake in Japan, complete with the Don Quijote theme song blaring nonstop, products piled high in unexpected locations, and in-your-face displays.

When news of the outlet broke in 2017, a local newspaper hyped it as a "long-awaited opening."

 

The buzz surrounding the store has been generated mainly by tourists returning from Japan, which has become a popular destination for Thais and other Southeast Asians. Don Quijote stores in Japan are now a must-go for souvenir shopping thanks to the variety of products, cheap prices and late hours. In particular, the stores stock everyday Japanese items favored by foreign visitors.

 

 

At a news conference in Thailand, Koji Ohara, president and CEO of Tokyo-listed parent Pan Pacific International Holdings, said he wanted to make the store Bangkok's "most entertaining" attraction while offering "the lowest prices."

 

"We plan to keep prices as low as in Japan -- 50% higher would be the highest we might go," Ohara said. However, tariffs and distribution costs make cost-cutting difficult. Purchasing fresh foods directly from local producers could help lower the cost, according to Ohara.

 

Donki Mall Thonglor -- which Don Don Donki anchors -- is designed to be a "comprehensive amusement mall" for families and young people. In mid-March, it will open a limited-run theme park featuring costumed mascots, among them Hello Kitty and other products from Japan's Sanrio.

 

Don Quijote's Thai debut comes as Pan Pacific's Japanese operations sag. Same-store sales fell 1.2% in December -- the first decline in 28 months -- followed by a 0.3% dip in January. The company attributes the consecutive-month fall to the shrinking number of Japanese shoppers.

 

To make up for this Pan Pacific is looking overseas, with plans to eventually operate about 200 stores in the U.S. and Asia outside Japan. The company wants its foreign operations to account for about 30% of total revenue from the current 10%.

 

Pan Pacific launched its first branch in Singapore in December 2017 and has since opened two more.

 

Nikkei staff writer Yuma Ikeshita contributed to this article.

[Lala81]

A meal with mushroom swiss double or a whopper single patty here in singapore is about low 8+ dollars. i think around $8.10-8.60

So 9 dollars for the whopper single patty seems expensive.

 

In Thailand the Burger King seems to be rediculously expensive, went to a restaurant to have a quick fix a few nights ago.

How are prices of Burger King in Singapore compared to the other fast food?



Menu and price


My simple meal consists of a double cheese burger and a regular fried and free water

226 baht is $9.40

 

[steveluv]

Found a hidden noodle shop, you will not expect a noodle shop to be in such a secluded place if not for the line of cars parked at the roadside.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JqodspRujA

 

Was told the shop will be full at lunch time.

 

So this is breakfast I ordered tomyam soup noodle. Tomyam soup noodle is actually using the same soup as the normal fishball noodle so there is only 1 soup. But when you ask for tomyam they will add lime and crushed peanuts into it sometimes even some evaporated type of milk to make it whitish like tomyam with coconut. Ordered the very soft Thai noodle we call it sen-lek.

 

[steveluv]

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Cover-Story/The-99-election-Thais-are-worse-off-after-five-years-of-military-rule?utm_campaign=RN%20Subscriber%20newsletter&utm_medium=daily%20newsletter&utm_source=NAR%20Newsletter&utm_content=article%20link

 

 

The 99% election: Thais are worse off after five years of military rule

Ranked the world's most unequal country, a divided Thailand heads to the polls

MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR, Asia regional correspondent and MASAYUKI YUDA, Nikkei staff writer March 06, 2019 12:36 JST            

 

KHON KAEN, Thailand/BANGKOK -- When business started to sag a year ago at the shoe factory where she and her husband work, Nui Kalathai began to borrow money from relatives in her village in Khon Kaen, one of the largest provinces in Thailand's northeastern plateau. She has been careful to ask for only small sums -- 400 baht ($12.60) one day, 200 baht on another -- to help cover daily expenses like eggs and dry rations. "It's so hard to survive with little cash," says Nui, who has a 10-year-old son. "I also have borrowed from two money lenders in the factory."

 

Nui's family is not the only one feeling a cash squeeze. In Chai Nat, a rice bowl in Thailand's central plains, and Phatthalung, a palm oil and rubber-growing province in the south, conversations often turn to financial hardship with little prodding.

 

Somsak Thangphon, a rice farmer, expects to reap more losses than rewards from his ripening green paddy field shimmering under the late morning sun in Chai Nat. With rice prices hovering between 6,000 baht to 7,000 baht a ton -- his best years were between 2011 and 2014, when government support pushed the price to 15,000 baht per ton -- he is barely able to cover his costs. Somsak has drained his savings and now lacks the cash needed to cultivate his crop of white rice.

 

Without Shinawatra-era farming subsidies, rice prices have dropped for Thailand's nearly 4 million rice-growing families. (Photo by Kosaku Mimura)      

      

It is no different for rubber -- a key product for Thailand, the world's largest producer and exporter of the commodity. A price slump is squeezing Don Phummali, a rubber cultivator, who grumbles at being reduced to selling a kilogram of unsmoked rubber sheets at 40 baht a kilo, half of what he got in 2014.

 

For many in Thailand's rural heartland, life has become harder under the junta that assumed power in 2014. Now, as Thailand heads toward its first post-coup election on March 24, it is the country's factory workers and farmers -- including nearly four million rice-growing families -- who appear to be shaping the terms of the political debate.

 

Thailand's poll, which has been delayed five times by the junta, will mark the return to a semblance of democracy after nearly five years of military rule. Confidants of the generals are hoping voters will focus on what they regard as their greatest success: restoring political peace in a deeply polarized country.

 

But it is the junta's economic record that is foremost on the minds of the majority of the voting public, who have watched as Thailand became the world's most unequal country during its rule.

 

 

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the gruff junta leader, is nonetheless campaigning on a message of stability as he seeks to become the head of an elected government. A 157-page book detailing Prayuth's record echoes his promise to "return happiness to Thailand," a pet theme ever since the powerful former army chief staged Thailand's 13th successful coup since the absolute monarchy ended in 1932.

 

The coup put a lid on nearly 15 years of political clashes between two broad camps, one drawn from the well-heeled, ultra-royalist elites concentrated in Bangkok, and the other from the economic have-nots and struggling middle classes in the rural north and northeast. The latter group has remained staunchly loyal to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who lives in exile.

 

Those old political divides burst into the open again in February, when a new political party supported by Thaksin nominated Princess Ubolratana, the older sister of King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun, as its candidate for prime minister.

 

The nomination of the princess was typical of Thaksin's penchant for seeking to undermine the junta, whose leaders have emphasized their loyalty to the palace. But her candidacy was rebuked only hours later by the monarch, and the princess quickly withdrew her name -- leaving the fate of the Thai Raksa Chart party that backed her hanging in the balance.

 

This brief, unusual episode has added to lingering questions over whether the election will even be held at all.

 

Supporters of Thai Raksa Chart, a Thaksin-linked party, rally in Bangkok on March 1. (Photo by Kosaku Mimura)       

     

The junta's plan to campaign on political peace, which has been achieved more through intimidation than reconciliation, will be a test of its sway over the more than 50 million voters who will go to the polls. It is expected to resonate with the country's affluent middle class, which has backed the last two coups. This constituency, says Yukti Mukdawijitra, a sociologist at Bangkok's Thammasat University, "doesn't need elections for their well-being."

 

But it is an unlikely vote-winner among those who depend on a robust farming sector to thrive. "I don't care who is in government, but they must know how to run the economy -- not like now," said a visibly frustrated Kannikar Asawarat, owner of a farming equipment shop in Nakhon Sawan, a major trading town in central Thailand. "It has never been this bad. My sales are down 80%."

 

 

Rural sentiment hits rock bottom

 

That is not the only inconvenient sentiment facing the generals, who are angling to extend their influence through Palang Pracharat, a proxy party. A clutch of recent economic reports depict the scale of the economic pain. According to the Ministry of Labor, some 260,000 workers were laid off in 2018, pushing to half a million the number of job cuts since 2017. They were largely in agriculture, furniture manufacturing and rubber products. Analysts expect more pain to come, especially if U.S.-China trade tensions continue.

 

These figures are on top of the loss of an estimated three million overtime shifts during the first four years of the junta's rule, according to a study by Siam Commercial Bank. "The economic sentiment is at rock-bottom in the northeast, and companies are cutting bonuses, not paying overtime, and not hiring," said Rene Pitayataratorn, head of a company in the electronics sector in Khon Kaen. "Some companies are not even upgrading, and some not even changing lightbulbs once the old one burns out."

 

The consequences of such malaise are reflected in another measure: household debt to gross domestic product. It reached 77.6% in 2018, a marginal decline from the high of 80.8% it hit in 2015. Studies by Thai universities paint a grim picture of households whose average monthly income is 27,000 baht -- the majority of homes in rural Thailand -- bearing nearly 180,000 baht in debts. One estimate places it even higher, at nearly 317,000 baht per household -- the highest since 2009, when the world was gripped by financial crisis.

 

Thailand's rubber factories have been hit by falling prices for the material. (AFP/Jiji)         

   

Meanwhile, the National Statistical Office reveals that the bottom 40% of Thai households saw their incomes decline between 2015 and 2016. The trend continued in 2017, according to the Bank of Thailand, despite steady improvement in GDP growth since the coup.

 

But the gains from that growth are not benefiting everyone. Thailand is sitting on a fault line of gross economic inequality, notes Banyong Pongpanich, chairman of Kiatnakin Phatra Financial Group. In December, the respected business leader alarmed the political establishment by noting that Thailand had become the world's most unequal country during the junta's rule.

 

"In 2016, the 1% richest Thais (500,000 people) owned 58.0% of the country's wealth," he wrote in a Facebook post. "In 2018, they controlled 66.9%, overtaking their peers in Russia whose wealth share fell from 78% to 57.1%," he wrote, citing the findings in the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2018.

 

The report portrays Thailand as a Russia-style oligarchy, and Banyong's decision to publicize its findings earned him little praise among the junta's economic mandarins.

 

"I am not surprised about the criticisms against my comments on inequality," the 64-year-old said in his 22nd floor office, which overlooks an upscale commercial district in Bangkok. "The report is just one piece of evidence showing that the inequality problem has been happening for such a long time."

 

 

The political parties campaigning for seats in the 500-member lower house are not tone deaf. They are hoping to tap into this broad swath of disaffection to tailor messages on the campaign trail. Political posters have mushroomed across the country promising to address economic problems. "Time to end economic crisis. No more debt," reads one.

 

There are 77 parties competing in the election, and they broadly fall into three camps: the pro-junta, anti-democrats; the anti-junta, pro-democracy parties; and those loyal to the establishment who are sitting on the fence.

 

The junta's legacy of inequality has even prompted the Democrat Party, a conservative and pro-establishment party whose members helped pave the way for Prayuth's putsch, to speak out. "Clearly, the economy has underperformed. Many people in the rural areas and agriculture sectors even had their incomes decrease over the last four years," former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, leader of Democrat Party, told the Nikkei Asian Review.

 

Iconsiam, a $1.65 billion riverside retail complex, opened in affluent Bangkok in late 2018. (Photo by Akira Kodaka)       

 

In a biting critique, Abhisit told the media last year that the junta has turned to "empowering people with rich resources to lead the economic system, like a train engine dragging along the rest of the carriages." But it did little to prompt a shift in prosperity, since "the engines alone are the fast runners, leaving the rest vulnerable."

 

His dig was directed at the billions of dollars the regime poured into infrastructure projects and other ventures to boost the flagging economy. These policies, including tax breaks, benefited the ultra-wealthy Sino-Thai clans, further cementing the ties between the generals and the oligarchs. But as the election looms, the regime has had to change tack, offering more cash totaling billions of baht to the economically marginalized through a slew of pro-poor policies to win support for Palang Pracharat.

 

'It's not a free campaign'

 

This economic fault line has become fertile ground for the country's largest political party, Pheu Thai, which headed the elected government the junta deposed in the coup. The party is the latest avatar of a succession of political parties launched by Thaksin, a former telecommunications tycoon and patriarch of the country's most influential political clan. It has won all general elections since 2001, which saw Thaksin head the first elected government to complete a full term before being ousted in a 2006 military coup. Thaksin fled the country subsequently to evade jail in connection with corruption charges. He dismissed the verdict, saying the case was politically motivated and that the trial was not fair.

 

But Thaksin, a politically polarizing figure, has continued to influence Thai politics from afar. This has made him the nemesis of the country's ultra-royalists and establishment elite drawn from the bureaucracy, the military and the wealthy in Bangkok. But he has remained popular in the rural heartlands, where his gamble to back the princess's brief political foray triggered excitement. Its failure has not shaken their loyalty to his political brand.

 

As prime ministers, Thaksin Shinawatra, left, and sister Yingluck, right, traditionally claimed the votes of rural north and northeast Thailand. ©Kyodo    

                

His younger sister Yingluck followed in his footsteps: elected as prime minister in the 2011 general election -- Thailand's last completed polls -- only for her caretaker cabinet to be ousted in the May 2014 coup, fleeing into exile to avoid jail in a case brought afterwards. The case targeted her government's lavish rice-pledging scheme, which offered to buy a ton of rice at 15,000 baht ($470), well in excess of the market price, as a way to boost farmers' incomes. Such pro-poor policies helped the Pheu Thai win most of the seats in the vote-rich north and northeast, but cost the Thai state 500 billion baht ($15 billion) and were rife with corruption, according to her critics.

 

The junta's allies, who drafted the country's latest constitution -- the country's 20th so far -- and the new election laws, have had the Shinawatras in their sights. The upcoming elections have been tinkered to keep Pheu Thai at bay by imposing harsh restrictions to prevent parties from offering pro-poor pledges to woo voters. It has prompted Pheu Thai's candidates in Roi Et, one of Thailand's poorest provinces, to tiptoe around these limits by talking about inequality.

 

"It is not a free campaign, so we are left with reminding voters who has become richer and poorer under military rule," said Nisit Sindhuprai, a Pheu Thai leader in Roi Et, as he planned his campaign in the fore-room of a provincial hotel. "People want the elections to choose a government that gives them economic hope."

 

The inequality issue has "become much more prominent than previous elections, where the focus was on growth," said Chris Baker, a Thai-based scholar. (Photo by Kosaku Mimura)     

       

Seasoned observers have been struck by the unfurling of the inequality banner in such a strident manner. "It has become a significant issue and much more prominent than previous elections, where the focus was on growth," said Chris Baker, a Thai-based scholar who coedited "Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power," a recent publication. "This marks a big change in the political conversation and is a defining feature of this election."

 

But the sea change also points to a concession by the junta, which has been prickly about any criticism of its performance -- including public events discussing inequality after the coup. Such gatherings, the junta admonished, fomented social conflict. Baker's book launch in Bangkok had to be canceled after the regime threatened to send troops to stop the event.

 

Not surprisingly, the junta's firm grip on Thailand's political life has fed anxiety in some quarters. An emerging concern across Isaan, as Thailand's northeast is known, is the fate of the March elections -- and by extension, democracy in Thailand.

 

"There is anxiety that this election may be postponed if the military government finds an excuse, like the way it delayed the polls many times," says Saowanee Alexander, a sociolinguist at Ubon Ratchathani University in the northeast. "It is still a rumor, but in Thailand the truth begins with rumors."

 

Nikkei staff writer Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat in Bangkok contributed to this report.