masuk

I've recently bought a new Suzuki Swift. Price is much the same as in Australia - EXCEPT - it only has ONE air bag. The Aussie version has seven! I'd hate to think what other safety features have been dropped.

Having taken it out at night for the first time, I was amazed to find that I could hardly see anything out the side windows. I had to put them down at intersections in the highly unlikely event that a car or bike rider might not have his lights on. Only saw 6 this morning before dawn.

I've had my doubts about the tinting, especially as even the windscreen is tinted, tho a lighter transmittance than the sides. BUT, all the tints are totally reflective!

I've just checked Australian and New Zealand standards, and there is no way these tints are permitted there. Reflective tints are totally illegal and light transmittance must be a minimum of 35%. No tinting at all is allowed on the portion of the windscreen below the mirror.

I'm going to have to remove the side window tints and try and find the correct ones.

As Thai assembled Suzukis are going to be exported to Australia, I should imagine there will be quite a few differences.

Is there such a thing as a Thai standard for tints?

Green bus site is http://bus.greencorporatethai.com/

just tried to make a booking for the trip to Chiang Rai. It's in Thai and no response when trying to change to English.

"Here is a novel idea start making people wear seatbelts."

Last time I checked there were no seatbelts on the bed of a Hilux or D-Max

...and one (1) air bag in the new Suzuki Swift compared to seven (7) in non-ASEAN countries.

Its not just Thailand.

Check out road deaths in Uk,so far over the festive season.

They have a stringent testing process in place.

I read an article that says 7 have died in the UK since Christmas Eve.

Official figures for just yesterday in Thailand stand at 32.

Judging by the tailgating at 90kmh, overtaking on double lines, cutting off a driver when the overtaker is obviously not going to make it in time, one can only assume that these guys are half stoned/drunk.

Is there any serious checking of blood alcohol levels on drivers BEFORE they're involved in an accident. Assuming of course that a blood alcohol test is taken following a serious accident.

Other countries have experienced a drastic reduction in serious accidents since breath testing started up.

Go to the bus depot over the river, and book a VIP bus to Mae Sai. It's a 4 or 5 hour trip, careful drivers, and there's plenty of time to go through the border and back again and return on the same bus a few hours later.

Free bottle of water and biscuits, but take ear plugs. The TV is rather awful, IMHO.

Best to avoid the slightly cheaper 'travel vans'.

You get hazier days (esp. mornings) throughout the cool season. But don't worry, it'll get a lot worse in March.

Mornings hit like 60-80 ug/m3, then it drops to 40 or so. Average is about 50. Same every year.

How many have had fog rolling through the trees and around the houses? (Mae rim region). I'd like to think it's purely air/water vapour and not mixed with smoke.

Last night I could hear the mechanical rice harvesters at work, so it seems they're really pushing to get the harvest in.

I have lived and worked in Thailand now for 8 years. At the moment I am employed for a few days a week and I keep myself busy otherwise. I have seen teachers come and go from where I live. I am a Tefler and before that I worked my ass off doing alot of different kinds of work and meeting people from all walks of life. I do not like to see people without a degree being seen as crap. I have seen people with degrees who could not find their ass with both hands in a teaching or otherwise environment. Talking about Mr xx's my neighbour had a big fight with his gf and she was pushed or fell from the 1st floor balcony in only her panties, I had to call the ambulance because he was too drunk to do so!

The compulsion for a degree before being allowed to teach, in spite of experience in teaching elsewhere, is excluding a lot of Teflers such as myself. One could have a degree in beekeeping and no teaching experience, and get a teaching job in Thailand. We had one degreed lass whose grammar and punctuation was so bad that we often had to correct her notices before being placed on display, as even the senior students would have picked them up.

Certainly, our head of school soon weeded out the 'baddies', and those who arrived drunk, unshaven and/or in sandals were soon given 'the rush'.

One even asked for a reference, and as the boss knew he had applied to a rival school, was given glowing testimonials!

How many of these alleged teachers,are teachers,not just Teflers.

I think that is a rather mean and egotistical reply. I took my teaching seriously and did so in Asia for 6 years.

Not one in my TEFLA class at an Australian university was a qualified teacher, yet all us of studied hard and worked overseas for some years.

Most of my colleagues at our school in Indonesia were 'Teflers'. and were enthusiastic and had good results from their students. The only failures came from one country, and many were persistently drunk and a few on drugs.

'Tis the season to be...smoky! Fa-la-la-la-la la-la-la la! And you thought you had to wait until February!

Appears to be very localized and bad luck with a breeze as 15 minutes later it is ok again. It was seriously bad at that time though that my wife went through and shut all the doors and windows and complaining you can't even breath outdoors. My eyes are still suffering and the bedroom still smells.

February is the more global issue rather than this brief localized burn. Don't know where it came from but my wife thinks field clearing not far from our previous house.

It's hard to find the reason for this smoke, only by your photo. The duration of the smoke may be a hint for chemicals or plastic. I don't know if you ever smelled the plastic smoke.

Here in the mountainous area of the Mae Hong Son Province the people light a fire to dispel the mozzies at daytime or have it in exchange for a heater, as the temperature is only about 10 - 15° by midnight until morning. But I guess the latter will not apply for CM.

In our area the strow burning did not yet start at all. It is still to wet because we have a dense fog every morning

Many western countries prohibit burning in built-up areas.

There are specific warnings for where rubbish is burned.

1) burning of copper-arsenate treated pine is totally banned, as it releases arsenic.

2) burning of almost all plastics releases carcinogens and other nasties.

They have put up some new posters with a picture of a child and some kind of slogan saying, "Daddy, please don't burn off the rice stubble for the sake of my health," or something like that. I drove past it somewhere in Chiang Mai province.

Combine it with this one for zero effect!

I agree. No politician is ever going to miss a chance to get his or her face on a billboard! However, public education --- positive encouragement for change --- is needed. Negative publicity also can help over time. Last season, there was some really good TV coverage of egregious burning being done on the Central Plains. The schools are important. Getting the children on board is one contribution to change that has helped in many countries in the past. All in all, there are limits to what can be done, but pounding away at the message does apparently help.

Enforcement of existing regulations is another route. Start arresting people and taking them to court. There are some interesting systemic problems with enforcement. One, for example, is the limitation of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment which has no enforcement authority. Last year, a poster (Ricky Ward, the "Tree Guy") reported that in the parks only a few and certain officers had authority to fight fires.

My favorite enforcement story comes from the (cough! gag!) 2006-2007 season when the Burmese general in charge on the border with Mae Hon Song Province was down at the southern end of his region. He wanted to go north but was told flying was impossible due to the burning, so he drove north arresting more than 200 farmers en route!

The economic impact of change on farmers makes a difference. There is the added cost of turning the land. Now, with the subsidies for rice farmers brought in by the current government stimulating more planting, one wonders what the result on the ground (and in the air) will be. People are even getting caught smuggling in rice from neighboring countries !!

This is not totally a Thai problem. This is a multinational SE Asian regional problem (primarily because of similar rice-based rural economies in Laos and Myanmar), but to blame neighboring countries is rather pointless, especially when so much can be done in Thailand, and certainly in the four NW provinces which are so obviously guilty as well as sorely affected. Otherwise, multinational regional discussions are going on.

So, what to do? On a personal level with neighbors, confrontation can be difficult (and not necessarily successful), but local encouragement and comment can be helpful over time. More generally, make noise: report fires. GPS is super popular and readily available. Most if not all mobile phones geotag photos. Take a photo, turn it in. Pass a fire on the road? Report its location to authorities. SPAM the guv! Just keep making noise.

Other ideas, anyone? Before we get to the bad days ahead?

PS. Buy filter paper for your air conditioners now! That filtering won't protect you from the really insidious particulate matter, but the house will be cleaner! Lots of hints about protecting yourself with air cleaners and various masks on last season's thread:

http://www.thaivisa....012-chiang-mai/

I'm puzzled about this. Most houses now have split air conditioners, and no ability to draw in air from outside. In other words, they re-circulate the air already in the house.

So how will this reduce the pollution problem? It would be nice to be able to filter incoming air, but I don't see how.

If air con filters are available, do they reduce the efficiency? Obviously they're going to slow down the clogging up of the existing filter.

It would be interesting to read peoples' comments and also the availability of the filters if they're different from the ones in the air con units.

Just had a very good Xmas lunch at Rosewood,Kad Farang.very nice restaurant.

4 courses.

Salmon salad starter.

An excellent spinach soup.

Roast turkey,Brussels etc.

Chocolate mouse,ice cream & fruit dessert.

Carpaccino

THB990 per head

10 of us all agreed it was very good in terms of food,value & ambience.

I believe they are offering the same menu tonight.

Where is Kad Farang?

"Charra" Irish for friend.

I had a guy from the UK call me his old marrer or marra?

What's it got to do with Australia,Air Asia is hardly any of their business.

Wow! I wonder what made Hedgehog so prickly?

Well, AirAsia does business in Australia, has many flights per day out of the country, and therefore follows Australian law, both aviation and business law. If an aircraft or ship does not come up to safety standards, it is stopped from further travel.

If the laws of the country are not followed, they get fined. Same all over the world.

AirAsia admitted liability, and paid up.

All prices in Australia are the true price; you don't have to add the tax before you buy.

My Seiko watch needed repairing recently, and I took it to the Seiko agent, 2nd floor of Kad Suan Keow. It went to BKK, and was back in 2 weeks, cost me around 150 baht. Maybe they will look at non-Seiko watches

and jetstar...i flighted from australia to bali..and they forced me to buy a return ticket(sooo expensive how can they call theirselves low cost) even if i had a reservation...it was illegal..but i had no choice..because they told me "take this or we ban you"

Can you elaborate on how an airline can force you to buy any sort of ticket - one way, or return?

As a sidenote, if you look at the Qantas website to book a flight originating in Thailand, the headline price does not includes taxes, fuel surcharges etc. <deleted>

Because it is not required by law in Thailand to include taxes etc in their advertising, it is required by law in Australia.

EXACTLY! Australian Consumer law is to protect the consumer, not the company.

If misleading advertising shows a price which does not include all the surcharges, fuel tax, environment tax, departure tax, then that company is liable to be fined. AirAsia got off rather cheaply. I've yet to find one of these "99 baht" flights.

Indeed good news for the region.

SQ just sold their 49% share in Virgin to focus on India/China - combined population of 2.7 billion, FD gets it carve out a niche.

For those interested look at the range of the A320. I would shave a few cm off that map, the LCC's usually are packed, but you can clearly see the the region has huge potential.

http://www.airbus.co...20/performance/

Hmmmm. the Airbus map shows it just reaches KL from the Gold Coast in Australia, and the flights are normally quite full, so no need to shave off those cm. The flights are good, and I've done 15 this year. food is quite nice too. It's just the KL LC terminal! It can be a very chaotic place, best avoided at religious holiday times as I discovered the hard way.

There's not too many places in the air conditioned area to wait if you have a long transit time before you can check in and head for the passenger lounge. Singapore is a much nicer alternative.

Has anyone heard about a possible new LC terminal planned for KL? I was told by a taxi driver.

I read it's closer to 43,000!

I moved to a nice quiet village some months back, 20 km from Chiang Mai.. Of the ten or so families in this block, about half are Thai.

I had a manual sent to me from the U.K. where the car is almost identical apart from a light in the boot. That cost me 32 Pounds Sterling and is from the Hungarian factory.

At the same time I requested one from Suzuki Thailand and that arrived shortly after.

When I bought my Isuzu pickup it only had a Thai written manual. So I asked the dealer to provided me with an English version, it took a couple months to get, after chasing them up a couple times. No extra cost. Yet a few years ago when I bought a Mazda it came with both English and Thai manuals!

Sent from my GT-P6200 using Thaivisa Connect App

Thirty-two quid for a manual! Seems a lot. But thanks for the info anyway: Had an offer for the same manual from another member. Yes, it seems that some companies had realised that not all their customers are Thai readers.

I've already fitted a couple of hooks and cord for the luggage cover, so that it raises when the boot lid comes up. Just like my old KIA.

I had ordered a Nissan from the shop near the airport and waited and waited. 18 months and got tired so called a Bangkok shop who could get any car I wanted in 24 hours from the factory. I did, Just ordered my third nissan from BKK

Some shops need to learn about customer service

Yup. the highly acclaimed Japanese quality control does not appear to have extended as far as the showrooms. The product is first-rate, albeit minus safety features of export models, but a customer should not have to hunt around for ways to clear print off the tinted windscreen, or even remove heaps of plastic seat coverings clearly marked ' must be removed by dealer before delivery" Ha!

I have had to remove the floor mat, as it is way to large for the space.

Accessories: anyone know if Suzuki have an accessories shop in Thailand? At this time of the year, the sun is so low that it reflects off the dashboard. The Aussie Suzuki folk sell dash covers but can't find it in the accessories here.

cost me 18,000 baht to insure my new Suzuki Swift via the agents. no freebies!

yup, black in the tropics is asking for one hot car! I once saw a TV program showing how fast a black car heats up compared to light colours. Stands to reason of course.

If the window film is 3M,it is easy to remove the logo,just stop at any place where they do it and ask...or try hydro-peroxide(heard they use it,but never tied myself)...

A bit of nail polish remover on a cotton ball does the trick quite nicely.

-Mestizo

thanks for that info. in other words, ACETONE, but as you suggest, it's going to be easier to get the nail, polish remover!!

That is pretty strong stuff...better test on some 'invisible' area first...

yes indeed. I'll choose a corner. Never heard of windscreens being tinted and hope the film stands up to windscreen wipers over time.

If the window film is 3M,it is easy to remove the logo,just stop at any place where they do it and ask...or try hydro-peroxide(heard they use it,but never tied myself)...

A bit of nail polish remover on a cotton ball does the trick quite nicely.

-Mestizo

thanks for that info. in other words, ACETONE, but as you suggest, it's going to be easier to get the nail, polish remover!!

How much was the new Swift?

489,000THb including insurance. This is for the manual model with radio and keyless start

Having been told by the Chiang Mai Suzuki agents that my new Suzuki Swift might be 5 months away, a friend gave me the name of a Suzuki dealer about 400km to the south. So I made enquiries and was assured that delivery would be less than 2 months. He was dead right! 5 weeks to the day and the phone call came - 'come and get it'!

So buddy and I headed south, and collected the car: the agent was a bit cursory with letting us know where things were and how to operate them. We only set off the alarm once back at the hotel. The extensive manual (I think) is all in Thai, so the hunt starts to try and get one I can read. Any ideas anyone??

We took it in turns to drive, and when I sat in the driver's seat for the first stime, I couldn't help but notice that right in front of the field of vison, is printed the name of the tint manufacturer. What forethought, what vision! Any more ideas on how to remove??

My bit of excitement for the day was trundling up the highway, and we could see a police barricade across the lanes. The B.I.B. must have super telescopic sight, as from 200 metres away, he started flagging us down. I thought it was the usual check for drugs, but he was rattling away to my buddy, and then I was asked to dig out 100baht. This was handed over to the B.I.B. who was all smiles and I was told that the red plates which the dealer had supplied were fake!

We were also warned that if we're stopped again, the fine was likely to be nearer to 1000baht. What-the-heck!

So the agent was called and he was laughing away; he knew the plates were false, but he assured us that if we take the plates off and drive without them for the next 45 days, it's not a problem. Wow!

So apart from admiring the Superman-like ability to spot false plates from 200metres away, I am somewhat puzzled. I checked out a good few other cars with red plates, and I can't see the difference.

A couple of differences immediately obvious to the Thai Swift and the exported ones is that this model has 1 air bag; the Australian version has 7! There is also no heating. Not really a problem in Chiang Mai for 10 months of the year, but handy to keep the windscreen clear at this time of the year.

Ah well, now to try and work out how to set the clock correctly, as my Thai buddy can't work it out either!