harsu

I can see how this system and the speedthai or whatever it's called could work, and would help people who already have a decent Thai spoken vocabulary but being able to read the words aloud isn't a lot of help if you don't already know what these words mean.

I agree. "What does that say?' asks my family. It says '........'. ( family look very impressed with me). Next question, "What does it mean?' .. and I haven't a clue. My vocab. knowledge trails far behind, especially with the type of language used in formal notices. Still, any progress is progress.

I am the very first to admit that my linguistic skills are mediocre. Having spent considerably more than 8 hours learning the Thai script and -only now - starting to feel more confident about how to read it, identify pseudo clusters etc, never mind hear a word read out by my teacher and correctly write it down, I feel slightly miffed. Can anyone really learn to read and write it in eight hours (plus homework, presumably.)?? Must be a very good teaching system?

Tennis balls!!

Believe me , you won't want one of those solid rubber balls when your dog drops it on your foot (it weighs a ton)! My dog has one but we have to hide it from her. As well as my foot and the cats head, there's lots of other things to damage.

Not really any help in your search for solid balls --

Back when we lived near the coast in Scotland. we picked up from the beach something that turned out to be our dog's (a lab./collie cross) absolute fav. toy... a hard plastic fishing net float, about 30 cm in diameter, and though hollow,weighed about a kilo and had a handy bit of thick rope left attached to it. He carried it everywhere if we let him, running around with the rope in his mouth, float banging him repeatedly on the mussle, whacking it against anything in it's trajectory path. Now you can do serious damage with that. We eventually had to hide it, and only let him have it when he was out in the fields.

A kidde is The device to get whipped cream. E.g. Svenssons and Buds use them in their icecream store. I used to have one in Holland and sometimes miss it when baking cakes etc.

I don't know that what I've seen is exactly the same - certainly not that manufacturer, but there are whipped cream canisters dispensers (rechargeable by little gas canisters) in a local bakery supply shop last time I looked. This is a great small shop for sourcing all sorts of baking equipment - and it sells lots of flours etc at about half the cost of Big C. Butter is also about 10B cheaper there. Nice people too.

I don't think there is an 'obvious' name outside the shop but it is easily identifiable.

It is on the left hand side of the Thanalai road. Go past the Suriwan(?) tea trading shop -as though you were heading towards Den Ha (แด่นห้า) and park on left after about 30 metres. It has a red and yellow striped awning over the front of the shop entrance.

Harnsu,

I tried to locate the shop. My wife told me Thanalai road starts with on the corner a Honda shop, Next to that on Thanalai is another Honda shop and a Suzuki shop. But No red an yellow stripe awning. Can you please give me more details, starting from the old or new clock tower?

JMM

From the new clock tower, head west straight over the first set of lights to go past the Face Bar, go round the right angled bend in the road, and turn right at this set of lights. 100 metres on your right is the bakery supply shop.... about 50 metres before the next set of traffic lights. Good luck.

Dear Harsu:

I know very little about the fascinating world of serpents, however, there's one very strange story I heard recently from a very good Thai friend - and I find this as mystical as hard-to-believe:

A Tokay starts emitting a rather peculiar sound, which is, allegedly, intended to signal to a snake,that all is not well somewhere deep inside the intestinal-tract of said Tokay. The snake, thus attracted, appears in front of the Tokay and the Tokay "opens-up-wide" at which point the snake enters into the mouth of the Tokay and goes down deep inside this Tokay . . . . Inside,the snake finds the part which is causing the Tokay's extreme discomfort and the snake proceeds to eat this "part"; then comes back out of the Tokay's considerable mouth and both go their separate ways.

Apparently; the removed body part, over time, completely regenerates. - Also; if this 'mutually beneficial' event would NOT occur, I am told, then the Tokay would surely die.

I forgot to mention that I, in fact, witnessed this entire 'ritual' right in my back-yard and I was totally 'blown-away' by this totally amazing event.

Have you heard about this phenomena ?

Never seen or heard anything so remarkable! harsu

I have heard about it, never seen it. Another nickname for the tokay is Tab ge (old liver) as I was told that they believe a snake enters the tokays mouth and eats his liver when it gets old and it regrows the liver.

Just reading through this again and seeing if I can find places where my thoughts have changed since it was written. In little ways, I can say "yes, slightly" but overall, it still reflects the way I view the place.

I have trouble reconciling some thoughts, though. I am often reminded that business people here are nonchalant, to say the least, about following up on customer inquiries. My Thai wife replies to every email inquiry she gets about her business. She returns every call, even missed calls and makes follow-up calls as new info comes to light. To me, that is the correct way of doing business and it is the way I have seen it done in other places almost my entire life prior to coming here.

Things are changing in the old country where I come from in that respect and maybe one day, it will be more like it is here, where you can inquire about a service or product and likely be ignored. As I saw that beginning to happen in the old country, I attributed it to younger generation lazy employees initially, but later, I started to run into business owners who did the same thing, especially self-employed contractors. Some of them I knew personally and I knew what they did every day and where they were during the day, namely the coffee shops or bars. Myself and others learned quickly not to call those guys because it would be a waste of our time and efforts. Better to call an unknown and see what if we could get lucky in finding a dependable business man. But inquiries being ignored is what I have found from my first day here and the attitude puzzles me and intrigues me, to the point that I spend a lot of time trying to understand it.

Here, the people aren't in bars or coffee shops, they are sitting in their businesses, apparently awaiting new customers or old. But they don't answer e-mails or return calls. Many times, if you reach said business person on the first call attempt, they put you off and say they will look into your request and get back to you but they don't get back to you. It isn't that the requests are for something unusual; it can be a request to a roofing supplier for roofing materials that he has in stock and delivers. It can be to an electrical contractor for a wiring job. It can be a request to any company about any product or service that they are in business to provide. It isn't that they avoid the English speaker or writers. They do the same thing to my Thai speaking/writing wife and to most of the friends she has. The friends all report and complain about the same behavior. Most people I know report the same behavior, whether they are locals or Farang. And yet, the wife has insurance sales friends, stock-broker friends, who work days, nights,weekends trying to drum up new business, So, I see that some who's success is dependent on self motivation only, are very hard workers and return a response of one kind or another to every inquiry. But the people who work from block and mortar buildings don't seem to care at all. Why is this? Will time alter this, for better or worse?

I recently advised a person on this forum to seek home schooling for a young child that is in need of education and this very thing is why I suggested it. It is an opportunity to take an impressionable young person and to instill in him/her a desire to succeed and to provide the guidance on behaviors that will help that person to succeed. Those things aren't taught successfully in schools here and I suspect they aren't taught at home at all. And I wonder why?

I do know a lot of places lose business with my family because the businesses don't seem to care about a sale. My advice is always, "Okay, forget them and go to another". And we do. And then maybe to another and another. And yet, if you walk into any of those businesses, order your product and present your money, you get the service or product. Why do you have to have a face to face meeting to get anything done? Why do the people list a telephone number, e-mail address or web address if they aren't going to bother doing business through any of them? It is almost as if it is still forty years in the past and they don't have those tools available to increase their sales. They DO have them but yet, they work as if they do not. I wonder what goes through their minds as they decide against utilizing these things. I wonder about it a lot. I wonder about it too much, because I can see NOTHING that makes any sense of it nor can any Thai person add anything that makes sense. The ones I ask are just as stumped as I am. So, are they that stuck in the past or is it something else?

I have often wondered if this reluctance,( when you work in a corporation/government dept. in many societies) - to respond to the electronic or impersonal request is simply because the person can. If you are working for money only, in a job in which you have no vested interest or owe no allegience to, it is very easy to become so disenchanted that the ability to ignore requests from potential customers or enquirers can become a hit back against the job that you have to endure.

Instead of looking at what you do and thinking 'I don't really want to be here, but I need to eat, so I might as well do a good job, because that way I feel good about myself and can take pride in what I do, boring/tedious though it is', I have seen many people take pride in being rude, spending their time at work looking for ways to avoid it, taking pleasure at scoring points against the business that enables them to pay their bills.

The only way to ensure appropriate responses to electronic or phone enquiries in a lot of big corporations is to monitor them.

It doesn't explain why there is so little response here though from the small business which is often family owned. The only thing I can think of is that it is not a personal enquiry. You aren't meeting face to face, you cannot judge whether you want to do business with this person. For a modern business that wants to make a profit, this is not a sustainable attitude.

But how many small businesses really seem to want more than a 'tick -over' profit, to be in business but not want to do anything other than open up in the morning, sit around all day, sell to a few customers, have a chat , then go home. There seem to be a large number like this. Perhaps not the owners of the businesses - but certainly many staff seem to have this attitude.The exceptions are the ones we have to seek out and use, in any country.

We may also have to consider that some businesses may feel that it is very easy to deny or alter a verbal agreement, but promising something on paper - even electronically - may just be a step too far. Society expects you to provide a remote means of getting in touch with your business - but you don't have to like it or use it. Short-sighted, infuriating when you're waiting for a response, but - in the long run- bad for them.

So if I am pist, it is a cobra and if sober it's a harmless green tree snake. Cool

Whether the one who perceives it is sober or not, the snake continues to be a golden tree snake. Alcohol fumes do not cause it to transmogrify. (I don't think).

They are really beautiful snakes, saw an amazingly aggressive battle the other day under a monsoon bridge between a large Tokay and one of these. it was declared a draw, though the snake did go away with noticeable jaw marks on it's side.

Well. Despite some nervousness , the PL weather angel held true . The rain was a non factor and in fact kept the temperature pleasant and it was just fine. Pretty much the core group (14?) this time and the first time no newbies, Great food as usual and great fellowship. Several voted to return next month to the same park. I give it a thumbs up for sure.

Our vote too - certainly for the doubtful weather months. Can't beat sitting beside the Nam Kok watching it flow by. Nicely kept park and plenty of space to spread out, go for a walk etc. If someone remembers the boules next time, we could have a game too. Thanks again to the organisers and 'finders'.

A kidde is The device to get whipped cream. E.g. Svenssons and Buds use them in their icecream store. I used to have one in Holland and sometimes miss it when baking cakes etc.

I don't know that what I've seen is exactly the same - certainly not that manufacturer, but there are whipped cream canisters dispensers (rechargeable by little gas canisters) in a local bakery supply shop last time I looked. This is a great small shop for sourcing all sorts of baking equipment - and it sells lots of flours etc at about half the cost of Big C. Butter is also about 10B cheaper there. Nice people too.

I don't think there is an 'obvious' name outside the shop but it is easily identifiable.

It is on the left hand side of the Thanalai road. Go past the Suriwan(?) tea trading shop -as though you were heading towards Den Ha (แด่นห้า) and park on left after about 30 metres. It has a red and yellow striped awning over the front of the shop entrance.

As Scorpio says, most definately do need to the 90 day reporting, but the good news is that you can just post up the required paperwork and photocopies needed to Mae Sai. Make sure you do it with a few days to 'spare' and send the letter recorded delivery so that you have a record you've sent it up. Usually get your stamped form back within the week.

Thanks to Jingthing and others.

It appears Jingthing's best solution for me would be to get a Non-Imm. "O" in the States before coming, to be sure to have the surest usable vehicle for going back to using Retirement Extensions. This way if my surgery causes me to go past my current Retirement Extension expiration of Oct 31st, I will have what I need to apply again without "converting".

I have this question: Since I never reported in to Thai Immigration every 90 days while on Non-Imm. "O" for 7 years, and assume it is not required as I always understood, does one have to report in every 90 days if on a Retirement Extension?? (I have not done so on the RE I am on now).

Here seems to me to be a pretty good guide and attempt at presenting the convoluted, ever changing process of getting a one year "Retirement Extension", with the caveat that in Thailand nothing in the Visa process is consistent for long, and largely depends on the individual Imm. officer's interpretation and mood of the day. I would like your comments Jingthing (and any others), of this site: http://www.wpcoe.com/visa/ if you have time, before I recommend it to others.

Thanks to all.

Your link seems to be spot on BUT how did you get the idea that you were not required to do a 90 day report with a Non Imm O. That is WRONG. Hope that is not discovered.

Best dentist on the planet - Dr. Wanpaya.

Works days Sriburin Hospital, evening and weekends she has a clinic Ban Du.

Good English and very nice caring lady. Sorted my pegs out like none other.

I've had mixed experiences at the General Hospital Clinic.

I haven't looked as yet, but is Dr. Wanpaya's clinic on the Chiang Rai Google Map?

If it's the dental practice I think Lannaman means (and we agree -very good service) then to find it get on superhighway heading north from CR town, go past the airport turning. Pass BanDu market on your left and the footbridge over the road. Do a u -turn at the next possible point and it is on the left in a parade of shops about 50 metres before you reach the footbridge again.

That was just what I was looking for! I did a search before posting my request, but my computer kept freezing and not coming up with anything, so I ended up just putting in a request. Many thanks.

Sawasdee Khrup, Khun Harsu,

Thought this topic recently discussed here ... sure enough : art supplies in Chiang Mai

good luck, ~o:37;

That was just what I was looking for! I did a search before posting my request, but my computer kept freezing and not coming up with anything, so I ended up just putting in a request. Many thanks.

Sawasdee Khrup, Khun Harsu,

Thought this topic recently discussed here ... sure enough : art supplies in Chiang Mai

good luck, ~o:37;

I'm looking for some help in finding art supplies in Chiang Mai, particularly for water colours. I will be visiting here from 'up north' later this week. On previous visits to town, I found one small art supply shop near the CM university art dept. and gallery, but there must be more! Someone mentioned there might be somewhere near 'the Union bar'(?). Any help and directions suitable for use by an out of towner with a street map would be most gratefully received.

There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't. CR is best suited to those who do.

00000010 post

I didn't think anyone would even remember what it was! The computer language version of ancient Phoenician. 'H.D for Dummies' available on polished stone tablets only.

Anyone willing to try to translate hexadecimal?

49:20:63:6f:75:6c:64:20:67:69:76:65:20:69:74:20:61:20:74:72:79:20:49:20:67:75:65:73:73:3f

Anyone willing to try to translate hexadecimal?

Went out this morning and bought a slow cooker- something we've threatened to do after every Pot Luck where we've been treated to that slow cooked barbequed meat of yours, and other attendees' falling apart, succulent meat dishes. Used one a lot in the Uk, when we were all out at work, but you forget how it can transform an indifferent cut of meat. Memories of (surplus males)Goat curry, venison in red wine, whole (surplus cockerals)chicken curry, It was always a bit unfortunate to be born of the male gender on our smallholding unless you had some exceptional traits. (T. says this is why he survived.)

Yes, I agree. Perfect spot for such a get together. And as Harry says, CHOCOLATE CAKE!! also. A nice laid back afternoon.

They're bilingual - so no problem with Thai or English papers. Both serve equally well to get splattered on.

If anyone coming to the pot luck on Sunday has a few spare newspapers, and can bring them along, I would be grateful. Incontinent budgies!

I read mine on Kindle and I am not giving the budgies that.

If anyone coming to the pot luck on Sunday has a few spare newspapers, and can bring them along, I would be grateful. Incontinent budgies!

Do you have any photographs? The sap of the frangipani is a sticky white fluid - it might be this that's leaking out where sucking insects have been feasting during the night. Sometimes mine look like they have been dotted all over with white spots.Or it could be a mealy bug infestation -they are very prolific at this time of year - I fight mine off with a high powered blast of washing up liquid and water - this breaks down their white waxy protective coating better.If the infestation is bad, the whole leaf and stalk can look like they have a white, slightly fuzzy coating.

There are also loads of weird and wonderful fungal diseases around. if you can get a picture and post it here, I'm sure someone much more knowledgeable than me will be able to give you a correct diagnosis and treatment. Good luck.

Time -13.00hrs. We'll put up some 'P.L' signs to aid house finding once you are inside the estate. Everyone welcome. Bring your own stuff as per usual. Might do pizza.

Well we had an embarrassment of riches(options) but it has been decided to have the May 29 Pot Luck at the Harsu clans place.:jap: It is very amenable to an outdoor event plus they have a veranda and of course a house that could be used if the weather turns nasty. There is a mini park immediately nearby and their yard has plenty of elbow room. Plenty of parking and CR Beach is just up the road. It is up to Harsu to set the time.

DIRECTIONS: From CR Hospital, continue west through stoplight, Continue on San Khong Noi to next stoplight and turn left Turn right at next stoplight on to Honglee. Follow this road till you see Mae Fa Laung Gardens on right. The road to CR Country Homes is almost opposite on the right. The road bends to the left then you will see the Gate/entrance. Continue on the main road and it will take a bend to the left and then a small bridge to the right. You can not miss the house as it is the only one with a new blue roof.

Hopefully the attached maps will post and help as well. Harsu, feel free to clarify my directions.

Literally three days ago we chopped one down in our back garden. My sister in law gave us a 3 metre specimen last year -she had brought a few up from Bangkok way for her very big garden, and we merrily stuck it in about 4 metres from the house. Now -having done some looking it up on internet, we now know why the local gardeners ( who like to come in and inspect our amateur efforts!) all gave it a thumbs down or a rueful shake of the head. The final confirmation of it being in totally the wrong place was when an American friend who'd lived in St.John in the caribbean, asked us if we were aware how badly the flowers smelt, and the potential for concussion from falling fruit. It had grown 3 metres since last June.

'We'll move it', we decided, then after four hours of excavating to the middle of the earth, it got chopped down, and the rootball was eventually removed by brute force and sheer b..y mindedness.

Nice tree in the right position.

My local temple in Chiang Mai. (San Sai) (Photos)

I visited another temple in San Sai last week, only to find an even bigger tree.

Some Thai friends of ours wanted to know the English name.

I put a photo up on facebook yesterday and lots of people likened it to something from "Avatar". They're not wrong.

Wait 'til they see the cannonballs!

Regards.

harsu your the first person that has greyhounds in los that i have heard of i had them for 29years in uk [racing] dont they make fantstic pets,as you have great knowledge of coat shredding i was wondering could we have our alskan marmalute clipped,we do every thing to make his life bearable ect.in doors durring the day,fan on all night outside we are going to have our car port roof extened he is the most lovable dog i have owned,as he was a rescued dog he gives back all his loyalty to me and the wife,so would it be ok for him to be clipped,it does get very hot down here in issan.

My two greyhounds are rehomed racers from the UK- and, yes, they make the best pets. The boy is nearly 12 years old and his racing name was Harsu Prince and he had quite a few wins. Our girl ( Cohan Velvet) never made the grade - hasn't a working brain cell in her head - and still thinks she's a puppy at nearly 11. Wonderful with people but care needed with both of them near small animals even now.

Your malamute sounds lovely. I've never kept a proper winter weather proof 'double coated dog' but I know that you aren't supposed to clip them out fully (shave) as the double coat also acts as an insulation against the heat and sunburn as well as the cold, and (again, only what I've been told by a friend who used to have a very hairy Spitz) when the coat grows back in it may not do so properly.

You can trim the coat so it's not so long over the belly/legs etc and use those special combs for stripping out the undercoat quickly - which you probably already do. Shade, fan, air-con, access to a paddling pool to lie in, exercise early am or late pm - you're doing it all already.

Saying all that, I used to shave my lab./Collie cross in Scotland in the summer - not because of the shedding (though he had a very thick coat) but because he used to spend his days rummaging around outside with us, and his coat used to be constantly caked in mud, gorse bits, burdock seed heads, teasels and anything else he could search out and roll in. I'd leave about an inch on his body, and a bit longer on his legs, for protection, and leave his head untouched. When Autumn came his coat had already grown back in ready for winter. He looked a bit strange but it saved a good hour s grooming a day and a bath - both of which he really didn't enjoy. A five minute brush surficed. Dog purists would have been appalled, but it worked for him and us.

I'd try looking on the internet and see if anyone can offer you some first- hand advice about living in the sub-tropics with a hairy beastie. Do they have a breed club for Malamutes in USA or somewhere that has hot summers?