jonnyscot

A couple years back at one of our local night markets I chased and rugby tackled a Thai guy who had a couple months earlier fooled my wife (and admittedly me) into some item purchase that wasn't quite as described without going into too much detail, after I picked him up from the ground by the scruff of his neck I found about 30 or more Thais around me, although at the time I wasn't concerned in what their interests were, I later on found they were all supportive of me due to the scamming nature of this guy I was holding and his gang,, my later visits to the local night market were greeted by smiles and sawadee's from the local stall holders to my wife's amusement,, so I'd say depending on circumstance Thais like I think has been mentioned earlier are mostly just as friendly as other nationalities

2 entirely different things that needed fixing,, the slave labour and the illegal fishing, I think he tried too hard too quickly regarding fixing of the illegal fishing issue because it's near impossible to properly address and implement this in as short a time as six months, the enforced measures would have put thousands of families livelihoods in jeopardy without any real plans for compensation to those affected, and I'm talking about the workforce here as well as the owners,, maybe he saw that this deadline was impossible to meet hence possibly why he backtracked, it's just a thought anyway,,

I'd suggest in an appropriate timescale sufficient to get things right we shall see changes for the better coming to the Thai fishing industry,,

After all It took many years for the UK fisheries authorities/fishermen to get their house in order, (unsure whether it actually is 100% now?) neighbouring countries to UK were flouting the measures UK authorities were implementing, foreign vessels fishing alongside UK vessels fishing with nets nearly half the mesh size UK vessels were ordered to fish with.

I wont comment on the slave labour as it's something I'm not too familiar with in this day and age, although back in my day as a fisherman we thrived on hard work and long working hours,,, I suppose bears some small resemblance to what some now call slave labour, the difference being if we didn't like it we could go find another job elsewhere, whereas these poor guys apparently can't

I'll go against the grain here and suggest the general has done as much as he could've done in such a short time,, most likely he has had many issues to undo/fix from the previous administrations of both yingluck and I'm sad to say Abhisit,

I guess the 6 months was always an impossible task, but at least he has made some small inroads which is more than can be said about the others

I found a split on the rear Pirelli angel st's on my versy's, so yesterday I changed out both the rear and front tyres, decided to stick with Pirelli and fitted the new Pirelli Angel GT's,

The wife deals mostly with the finances, although she does keep me up to speed with what's going on, I'm quite happy with that setup since she's saved us quite a few baht in the last few years,, she also gets involved some small scale investments, and works hard to get some small return from working our small piece of land we have, I know we'd be much worse off if I sorted out the spending,, joint decision when we purchased a new car this year, which incidentally was the first new motor I've ever had, all my previous motors in UK were second hand, so she must be doin something right with the money

Another option if you've any sturdy overhead beams,,on a carport for example, buy a small chain block and a soft sling,, can raise your bike by a meter or so

There's a huge park on the outskirts we visited it once on the way home from cha am to Suphanburi, inside the park they have buildings with waxworks of famous people, a walk through the park in my opinion shows some great photo options with replica old Thai buildings and attractive waterfalls and statues,, very nice,, maybe someone can help with the name of this park which I've forgotten,

I had a scooter lifted from outside tukcom along with about 10 or 15 other scooters about 4 or 5 years back, went to the police station to find out where to pick it up, naturally a fine had to be paid before collection

Came close to one of these off the scottish coast in the North Sea a number of years back whilst in the fishing industry, also saw a few pop up all within an hour on the same day working offshore in Saudi, nice to see and photograph but looks like this one as were the ones I saw, the centre covers only a relatively small area even though it's moving, not much of a concern in my opinion unless fishing from a canoe

Hi weegee, unsure where exactly you're based but if anywhere close to some of the ports where the larger fishing boats work from you may have an option to find some service companies supplying similar types of valves used for operating hydraulic winches or triplex power blocks on these fishing vessels,,

Can anyone comment on the expected lifetime of those lens implants? Although I understand it may be dependant on several factors,

Thanks

Sorry for butting in here but how many years are the eyes expected to stay good as a general rule,

I just scraped thru my seaman medical a couple weeks back, doctor noted early cateracts in both eyes and stigmatism in my left eye, I've worn contact lenses -2.00 strength for distance for many years but just this last year I see my close vision deteriorating (when the lenses are in I mean ) before close and far vision were ok with the lenses

Hit their wing mirrors if you can be sure that you will get away. Else, just take a deep breath and count to 10.

I like your first sentence, I have done that a few times when motorbikes ride up the sidewalks or through a market beside me.

I always make it look like an accident for the very reason Seedy has already said.

Very difficult to keep my cool, trouble is nowadays I'm not as fast with the fist as I was,,

Although I'd like to change my ways and be more respectful of arrogant drivers, it gets more difficult to reach that goal, in saying that although I've threatened and challenged a few thai drivers I've not yet had to lift my fist in a road rage in thailand yet.

Yep, nice pies at the baguette, didn't bring any home on our beach trip last weekend because was trying to eat reasonably healthy until I get my offshore medical finished this week,,, now it's passed I'm back on the pies ,, hehe

I will get feeeeeeeeeeeerked if I post my opinion...........But I will.................You want long time reliability....Toyota.

You change your ride every 1-2 years...Anything................

Agree with trans, we had our 4 door vigo D4D for over 7 years, ran reliably for over 240k km when we sold it,,

no mechanical or electrical problems throughout,,,,,, with the minor exception of when our adorable golden retriever chewed through every cable within view beneath the car

As you are driving down to Cha am beach on Narathip towards the beach on the left.. there is a Pastry shop and they have some very good meat pies.

Very good.. when ever I go I take some home with me.

Dont know the name of the place.

I think that directions sound like you mean,,? "the Baguette"

I also take some home each time,, but tend to go to their shop in hua hin as they bake them there, we buy them still frozen from the hua hin shop, although sometimes freeze precooked ones from the cha am shop

Small local hospitals and I hear clinics in our area do hold anti venom, my sister in law got bitten on the finger 2 years back by a snake, it was around 5am and still dark so she couldn't identify the snake, she went to the hospital where they took blood samples to determine whether the snake was venomous or not,

I think the blood tests were mixed with some chemical and if the blood sample mixed then turned solid it would have meant the snake was venomous,

she spent 2 nights in hospital,, luckily the bite wasn't venomous. The hospital at that time did hold the anti venom

"smaller fish ... will die anyway" ?

Yes, but might want to grow up a bit before.

A pretty clueless post,, there will nearly always be a percentage of smaller fish in the trawl catch, the purpose of enforcing the laws is to minimise this

Can't offer much advice possum, but when I went with my wife to register my versys in Suphan at the licence register office, when at the desk they did ask us if I wanted it registered in my name, personally I can't be assed with chasing paperwork so I put in wife's name so didn't ask what's required, but I'd first suggest you visit your local registry office and ask if they would accept the driving licence as proof, or even a utility or bank bill in your name may act as additional proof

Good post Laislica with interesting link,, I wouldn't go as far as say the fishermen are using nets as small as mosquito nets, but certainly they are using undersized mesh size, the mesh size must be controlled along with additional measures such as square mesh panels to allow smaller fish to escape, however the thai fishermen should be allowed to sell on a set percentage of the by-catch defined from the total catch landed, these smaller fish trawled for hours along the seabed and then brought to the surface are mostly already dead fish or will die anyway whether returned to the sea or not

I was rich when i was away working as a fisherman,,, trouble was I was poor again after a couple of days back home from the fishing,,,,,

as my mum used to say, I pissed my fortune up against a wall

Preservatives is used in europe by fishermen to prolong the shelflife of fish, most countries would use some form of preservative but i can assure you its a much safer option than the formalin.

a well known product i am very familiar with is xyrex, check their website for product info, I helped trial and market this product to the fishing industry in Scotland

UK trawl fishermen were mostly adhering to strict regulations in mesh size and square mesh panels in order to help maintain stocks around UK waters while Spanish, French and some Dutch trawlers were fishing in UK waters with nets with little restriction to mesh size or any consideration to the stocks,, the EU did nothing but clamp down more on the UK trawlers, but as is nature of man everywhere there will always be some who try to sidestep the regulations

There was a well publicised number of cases against UK pelagic skippers in the last few years that were brought to justice,, fines running into the millions of UK £, but then again their catches far outweighed the fines

For those regular visitors to the savannakhet border who haven't previously experienced any issue with the bus system, possibly on the days in question last week there may have been a shortage of busses, mechanical probs or some related issues,

last year and the previous year I went there I didn't experience the same problem with the bus (although the first year I used the savan Vegas service)

whether it was due to as eddie mentioned the 2 day turnaround in visa drop/pickup (although the 2 day service was in play when I went last year too)or simply unreliable bus service on those days, I was just posting my experience, just to pre-warn others to possible delays on using the bus service

Easier yes, but why should you allow people behind you in the queue to pass you? If you were to be as cortious as that id hazard a guess that youd still be there waiting when the border closes in the evening,, which in my situation is not so good as I had to pick up our car from the hotel we left it at in mukdahan and drive across the breadth of the country or nearly 700km to get home after the crossing, yes I believe there are flight options, but not so convenient for us in this instance,,

The other solution due to limited availability lets just say was a one off.