kokesaat

Our intention of building a 8' wide L-shaped porch on our home 25 years ago was to keep the sun off the windows. It worked. But better still, it's where we've dried clothes all that time without a problem.

Some food for thought: One problem in Thailand....maybe elsewhere......is that your neighbor might very well dump trucks of dirt on his land to avoid water problems.....after you have built. Another problem....you build a house and compensate for water runoff. But the city/village builds/improves a road by raising the height of a road, thus altering the course of runoff. Another problem: In Udon, for instance, there was city-wide flooding in the year 2000. While the city has taken some steps to reduce the possibility of same flooding, hundreds of new buildings/subdivisions/roads have been built since. If we have the same 13" of rain in 6 hours, there will most certainly be severe flooding.....but likely in different areas than back in 2000. You can get a pretty good idea of the lay of the land from google earth.....avoid the bottom of soup bowls (like the center of Udon) for starters. If you're dealing with a flat piece of land (like a rice field), I'd add an extra meter of dirt to whatever you feel is enough. I can show you lots of rice fields where an extra meter of dirt would keep you dry.....except for that 20-year storm that might be just around the corner. I'd stay away from any klongs/rivers/drainage areas. Build your house so it's a meter or so above ground. Our 1700sf cement house sits on about 24 cement pillars......the space under the house gives us a place to store misc things and keeps us dry even in the wettest of years. Good luck!

Does anyone know what bases the Chinese aircraft came from?

"Is this a shortened version (slang talk) for รอด บ่ะ น๊อ?" I should have said, รอด บะ น๊อ?

รอดบ่น๊อ Is this a shortened version (slang talk) for รอด บ่ะ น๊อ?

The Center for Medical Sciences in Udon does this service. I checked other bigger cities in the NE like KhonKaen, Korat.......there are similar centers there as well. I suspect that with the proliferation of drinking water machines/companies, most all bigger cities provide this service. Google is your friend. http://rmsc8.dmsc.moph.go.th/page-view/92

A well-to-do Thai couple visited our home a few years ago in a sedan covered with large Hello Kitty stickers pasted all over......along with seat coverings/head rests of the same. They were about 30 years old. A good gift for a Thai university female student is a stuffed animal. Our US-based daughter was into stuff like that......but outgrew it when she was about 14. Different strokes.

If I had to prioritize things that have had the biggest impact on living here: Keep sun off the walls/windows of the house at all costs. Large overhangs would be worth the additional cost. White steel roof At least 4" insulation over ceiling 13' ceilings (flat). We run an 18k AC in the living room for about 14hrs per day, an 18k in the master bedroom for about 9hrs per day, and a 9k AC in a smaller bedroom for about 9hrs per day. Thus far, 24years in, our electric bill has not been more than 3500/month.......Nov/Dec/Jan less than half that.

Santol trees, limes, mangoes, starfruit, jackfruit, coconut, longan, tamarind, Antidesma puncticulatum, among the many that thrive in Udon. Jackfruit planted next to the house brings good juju. I'd stay away from things like durian....I'm not sure they'd do well without lots of loving care. Avacadoes are gaining in popularity around here.....but you might have to settle for strains that fit the climate.

When we were marooned in Texas for 13 months for Covid, I decided to go as cashless as possible. Like anything new, it took some learning....google pay, samsung pay, Venmo, etc. But once you get the hang of it (like teaching some of the leftover GIs email back in 1996), you don't want to go back. When we returned to Thailand, it was actually easier as all I use now is my SCB account.......'s-kan pay'. Everybody understands. Once you use it a few times, it's effortless....take no more time than paying cash......and gives you a digitized receipt of all your transactions. I even pay for my daily slurp of noodle soup with s-kan pay. I haven't heard of any restaurants not taking cash.......could be true, but I'd personally be surprised if it were.

Submitted my online app at 1:11PM. Immediately acknowledged. Approved at 2:43PM

Daeng regularly moves things between all points Isaan and Bangkok https://www.facebook.com/movehome2015

My guess: you had the max insurance discount on an older car. You bought a new car, probably got first year free through the dealer. When that year is up, you pay......based on a new car, not your older car. Happened to me several years ago.

Our half Thai daughter was born in Taiwan when we were stationed there. We affectionately nicknamed her Moo หมู. She traveled to the US for the first time when she was 18months old.....The natives (my aunts/uncles/relatives) couldn't understand how we could call someone 'pig'. Of course, most all of them had no idea the difference between Taiwan and Thailand. I find it refreshing to know that Thais will call you fatso and you won't get offended. Try doing that with someone you know in the US!

Moved here in 1996. At the time, in Udon, mostly leftover GIs from Vietnam daze. An early conversation with one who had been here since 1972 told me not to lose touch with reality (life in the US). My wife and I find our trips to the US reinvigorate our desire to continue living in Thailand......we always have a good time in the US, prices be damned........but we lead a completely different life here 18km outside of Udon. Naturally, there are pluses and minues on both sides, but the pluses outweigh the minuses. We choose to live here....we could have chosen many other places........and I can't imagine staying here if the minuses outweighed the pluses.

Nancy Pelosi is far from being the first politician to make an official visit to Taiwan (since 1976). In all liklihood, the US is going to supply Taiwan with weapons that would help repel a Chinese invasion. That won't go over well in Beijing.....but then, a Chinese invasion of an advanced, democratic country probably won't go over well in the US either.

Assuming she married and went to Denmark on a foreign passport, she should have some documentation.....old ID, old Thai passport, birth certificate, etc. If all else fails, she should return to the city/village where she was born and try to find a long lost relative/neighbor who can vouch for them. My wife went without a Thai ID card for about 20 years......she was fortunate to find an old friend of hers working in the local amphur office. He signed a few forms and she got her ID back. Good luck.

Has anyone seen a photo of the left side of the aircraft? I wouldn't be surprised if the landing gear snapped (as it did on the RC135 I was on.....see previous post on page 1). In any case, I'd guess the engines sucked up a good bit of dirt. If the airport was ill-equipped to handle a ?minor? emergency evacuation such as this, imagine a more serious incident.....at this airport or many of the smaller ones that handle 100+ passengers/flight around the country.

I was on an Air Force RC135 that went off the wet runway in the Philippines during an aborted takeoff in 1979. 3 rings on the alarm bell and everyone left via the forward hatch. Although you can't see it in the photo, the right side landing gear punctured the wing. Lots of gas flowed from the aircraft as we were 'bailing' out. No injuries, no fire, but over a million dollars in damage to the aircraft.....back in 1979

You can load a vpn onto a firestick, but not a chromecast. A vpn'd firestick allows you access to US netflix, pbs, bbc, among others

If you have a well-shaded porch, preferably at all times of the day, you have a place to dry clothes even in the wettest days of the rainy season. You have a place to chill during the cooler winter months in Isaan. You have a place to admire your yard/butterflies/birds/squirrels/lizards. We live, we like to say, in the jungle......but spend mornings on our porch drinking coffee and evenings long after the sun has gone down watching the fireflies. Mosquito time is typically 6pm-8pm. After 8, I think the bats take care of the rest.

If your 'housing project' is building a house, why not bring over the money as you need it, say 100k at a time? We've been here for 26 years.....through the collapse of the Thai economy in 1997. No one that we know of, expat or Thai, lost any money in reputable Thai banks....Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial, Kasikorn, etc. For a brief period in 1997, there were some limitations on expats withdrawing all their money unless an outbound ticket was presented. That lasted probably less than a month or two. If you're concerned about the amount covered by government insurance, spread it out. For me, I'd sleep soundly with several million baht parked in a Thai bank account.

I've never used an otc hearing aid......more like the high end name brand ones. From my experience, a hearing aid just out of the box isn't going to do you much good other than amplify 'noise'. Of the 6 pair of hearing aids I've owned, the tuning process usually takes a minimum of 30-60 minutes by a trained audiologist. Good luck with your search

In Udon, the sun rises slightly NE in the middle of June and then goes on the decline to SE in the middle of Dec. Roughly a 70deg to 120deg change. I always thought the sun rises in the E and sets in the W......but actually, it's quite a dramatic swing.

When we built our house 25 years ago, we used an online program similar to https://www.suncalc.org/#/40.1789,-3.5156,3/2022.07.24/09:59/1/3 The app is immensely more powerful today! Also, install a compass app on your phone (Compass for android is really good). Gives you specific coordinates, altitude, etc. We live in Udon. We ended up with the long end of our rectangular house oriented about 85/275. Single story. White steel roof. Large 3m overhang on southern side and eastern side. Carport on western side. Here's a few things we've learned over the years. The sun never hits our southern facing wall. Our northern wall gets maybe an hour of sun at the peak of summer.....no impact. We underestimated the impact of the morning sun......should have built a bigger overhang there, but made up the difference with fast growing wall of green palms. Our western facing carport prevents the sun from ever hitting our western facing windows, but we had to plant a wall of palms to keep the sun from baking our truck. The palms solved both the eastern/western problem. Our northern facing windows/walls are never affected by the sun. We have a 7' wide porch along the entire length of the southern side and the width of the eastern side. In short, I'd say do whatever you possibly can to prevent the sun from hitting your exterior walls.....whether it's orientation, overhangs, trees, whatever. If the sun hits your walls, you pay the price for the impact long after the sun has passed on as the walls retain the heat. I'll be surprised if you can find a ready built that meets your needs, but good luck in your search.