more photo info… damn.

View all comments by ssb

One of the best things about going on a visa run to Vientiane is the deal you can get on Lao coffee. A kilo of rich dark Arabica or Robusto beans will seat you back the princely sum of $3.50 Uud.

Any Pimpone supermarket in Vientiane has piles of kilo packs for sale. You just have to look for a store that has taken RECENT delivery sort thru the stock for the newer looking packs. The aroma of these beans permeates the entire store.
Awesome!

For some reason this, wine at significantly sensible prices and fantastic baguette have remain fond memories of the Laos visa run experience.

I thoroughly enjoy telling every Thai coffee afficionado I meet that Lao beans are the best I’ve ever ground. I torture them silly with accounts of the rich chocolaty aroma that wafts from the grinder and how this is actually part of any real coffee experience.

I suspect that Thailand’s Black Canyon Coffee outlets (one of the country’s hidden treasures and one of its most under-marketed and under-invested enterprises probably uses Lao beans) use beans from Laos. This information comes as a shock.

Confronted with yet another lazy-ass national shortcoming they can chalk up to racism and xenophobia, Thai coffee snootsters blurt out that they have never been colonized. I counter that THIS sad fact is plain to see in the little things: in their use of Western languages, the quality of public works all over the country and until the 1968 Patpong renaissance the sorry state of Thailand’s BJ industry. If they’re still breathing I like to tell them that most Vientiane-istas
can sapeak a European language.

If they actually recover long enough to inform me that Chiang Mai coffee is pretty good as well. I pretend that I know FER SHURE that tons beans are smuggled in through the older Northern Thai “trade routes” on the backs of fresh dewy Lisu, Lahu and Akka brothel conscripts

Sometimes I am not a very nice person

I don’t talk about BJ’s because everyone knows and as one SE Asia know-it-all informed me over my first beer at the Woodstock. “That part of the body is lower than the head.”

I’m just a little giddy about this opportunity to introduce my new avatar (an actual Chula gator adjusting her thong and pantyhose before she slips back into her 4″ stilletos

The background, is soi Thonlor’s renown Au Bon Pain

View all comments by thongsuk

Starbucks chooses what they want to do. I think they are very clued in technically – just look at the whole iphone deal in the states. So if they want to they could offer something different. They choose not to. So I don’t buy the I am a coffee guy I don’t know about networks excuse.

All your points are valid but I can say this. Myself and my friends who to come to bangkok would camp at starbucks cause they had wifi before many places. We dont even bother now cause there are so many options for free wifi. SO they lost my business and many of my friends. I think that effects them.

Edge is cool but 4baht an hour is still not free. If thailand had a real internet backbone then for sure edge would look slow but given how slow Thailand is in general I guess edge aint too bad.

I think starbucks is just plain expensive – import or not.

cool thread and thanks for chiming in.

View all comments by ssb

I’d be curious to hear feedback on how many extra 100 baht beverages (what’s the margin? 5%?) a typical store might sell by offering free WiFi?

At the time the KSC/Starbucks deal was inked (2004?) there wasn’t a lot of free WiFi here, and paid WiFi hotspots seemed to be the trend. AFAIK even today there are not a lot of retail-chain associated free WiFi hotspots. I understand there are a lot of open and free WiFi hotspots, and one-offs at various establishments, a la The Big Mango.

I think SBUX just reported a surprising surge in same store sales, but are probably slipping in the U.S. (Same store sales up, but customer visits down.) They are considering TV advertising for the first time ever.

http://www.123jump.com/earnings-story/Starbucks-Falls-to-a-One-Year-Low/23756/

I assume the Starbucks coffee is imported (into Thailand) and that higher duties are imposed to protect the nascent coffee business here in Thailand?

With EDGE (GPRS) you can park yourself anywhere there are cute girls. Like I said, I pay ~ 4 baht/hour for EDGE service.

View all comments by Mark

Starbucks could choose to install a dsl line. put a wifi hub on it and turn it on. They choose to do a 3rd party solution. They choose to overcharge for it and make money on it. I know they are not a charity and I also know they probably don’t want people freloading on their net connection all day.

However I think it is great that the competitors to SB realize the opportunity to offer something like free wi-fi and therefore gain customers. Starbucks is not growing much anymore with same store sales. Seems they are only making money by opening new stores. I Wonder why.

SO I tend to go where my wifi is free. Coffee is not that big of a deal given starbucks coffee aint all that good. I hail from Berkeley area. Peets kills starbucks. I also go where the girls working are cute or the area is known to have some traffic in cute girls.

So the not having internet at home forces me out to where the free wifi is and the cute girls are.

View all comments by ssb

that’s rich – reminds me of the nuremberg war crimes trials where the defendants would claim “i was only following orders, it was not my decision”. starbucks is clearly responsible for deciding to use a third party and passing on most, if not all, of such cost on to us.

View all comments by go go groupie

WiFi at Starbucks here is provided by a third party so you can’t really blame Starbucks for pricing. They probably should give out a complimentary free 30 min. scratch card with each purchase. A few years ago, as a post-paid DTAC subscriber, I used to get free KSC WiFi which was usable at Starbucks. That was a great benefit but it was dropped.

Starbucks in the U.S.A. offers WiFi via T-Mobile. On the fly subscribers pay $6.00 per hour. There are less expensive monthly plans available. I pay the $6/hr as I am an infrequent user.

Free WiFi is OK but I wouldn’t go out of my way to camp out at McD’s for internet access. If away from from my home/DSL connection I prefer EDGE as it is nearly free (One-2-Call/AIS: 107 baht for 25 hours) and available everywhere (even in Isaan in the middle of rice fields!). Speeds are decent here, ~ 150 kbps (EDGE), usually better than some over-subscribed free WiFi connections. I need the DSL at home for torrents.

I’ve heard about McD’s offering b’fast here but have yet to try it. Am looking forward to it; hope it is OK.

View all comments by Mark

I understand the uniform standards are set by the Ministry of University Affairs. The standards are looser for senior students than for juniors, e.g. freedom to wear your own shoes and the straight-cut skirt.

My best survey story was at MBK Centre a couple of weeks ago. Two students approached me with a survey about hotels. One gave me a short paper to fill out but she had nothing to rest on while I wrote. So the other told me to rest the paper on her back! Highly amusing and arousing too. I was so thrown by the experience that I forgot to take their picture.

If you are in Siam Square or MBK it’s pretty certain that you’ll be approached. I’ve contributed with pleasure to surveys on the environment, music, tourism and others. Remember they usually record your responses on a handphone – so be aware that your humourous replies will probably be replayed to all their friends.

Another really cool thing: groups of students collecting for charity. Most do with enthusiasm – sometimes signing and dancing to get the attention of passers by. I’ve seen that outside Chatuchak market and my local subway station.

Truly one of the great things about living in Thailand.

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