kmar92

Tony Abbott should buy himself a corgi!

Does anyone have anymore news on the status of the Friendship Bridge No. 4? I know that the bridge is ready to go and 2 weeks ago when I was there the infrastructure on the Thai side was finished and that Wednesday was slated as the opening day. Maybe the Laos side is still a problem?

I ordered a router from them and was very satisfied with the service and the price - gets a tick from me.

Thanks guys for the information. It looks like I can find an opthalmologist to monitor my condition but if an intra vitreal injection is required I will go to Khrung Thep.

I have a condition in 1 eye that requires monitoring monthly and may require intra vitreal injections. As you can imagine you do not trust the intra vitreal injections to anyone with a needle in their hand. Does anyone know and could recommend a good opthalmic surgeon in Chiang Rai?

The Royal Thai Consulate General in Sydney do issue non-immigrant O-A visas, I obtained one 2 weeks ago from them. You are correct in that the visa that they show as "Retirement" is the non-imm multi entry O-A visa.

I hope that answers your question.

Great photo's Brian.

If you have the right type of soil (good drainage) you can plow the straw back in and it will biodegrade into useful compost. But if you have poor drainage as in the clay soils found so often in LOS, and/or water standing in the off-season, you get anaerobic activity which produces byproducts which will damage the next crop. Burning also kills pests and diseases in addition to weeds, and disposes of straw.

It's complicated. California in the US is in this quandary. Some rice farmers can plow in and some can't depending on soil type and drainage. California has outlawed burning and the straw is piling up like mountains along Hwy 99 just N. of Sacramento. (State Capital.) Many are working on a solution; some trying to use it with molasses as cattle feed, some trying to ferment it and make alcohol, some trying to gasify it and generate electricity... Nothing yet is economically viable but I'm betting with that much resource, an answer will come.

Sound like a very educated answer , thinks are not always as easy as they seem, or as we would like them to be .

Thanks. I have a distant relative who is a rice farmer in California. I forgot to mention that ash is a very good fertilizer for rice too. That huge delta area along the Sacramento River from N. of Sacramento and as the river heads to the coast (roughly toward San Francisco) is all rice farming. They produce a little more than 1/3 the rice that LOS does, but make the US a net exporter of rice because it isn't a staple US. If it were a profitable commodity, rice could be grown in lots of places in the US. As it is it's grown only where the conditions dictate it, which is exactly what happens in LOS. It's now almost a loser crop because rice prices suck, there's no commercial value in the straw as there is in, say, corn stalks...

LOS has a huge problem right now because the Thai government went into price support and bought a few mountains of rice at ridiculous prices thinking that if they kept it off the market prices would rise but they fell. Now the Thai government is sitting on mega-tons of rice which is spoiling and there will be another crop behind it. I "think" the government paid about twice what it's worth and when/if they soon unload it they will further depress the market. I'm sure everyone knows that LOS is the world's #1 exporter of rice.

Actually for the year 2012 India is the largest rice exporter at 9.75 million tonnes exported followed by Vietnam at 7 million tonnes and Thailand ranks at 3 with 6.5 million tonnes exported.

I have been a long time "lurker" here on the Chiang Rai forum and a very modest contributor. It really disturbs me that there are so many flames, trolls etc here and I notice that a moderator shares my concerns. As someone that is planning imminent residence in the area I had hoped that I could get pertinent info from long time residents via this forum (the inside running so to speak) but it is hard to battle my way through a lot of negative posts and replies to posts. Oh well as ever the optimist I hope things will get better.

You have an obvious talent for the capture VF, nice work..

Where are these monks going to? I thought that in the raining season they stayed put.

Perhaps a little over ehanced in PS or aperture or whatever you use but still quite stunning captures.

Wat Ji Gong is well worth the trip, the waterfall is interesting but be warned you need to be very fit to climb to the top.

Wat Ji Gong is indeed a very impressive wat, if you enjoy visiting wats then I can recommend this one.

With over 1,600 views so far, this 2nd most popular open thread is heartwarming. I should have said "goodbye" ages ago to generate such a following to the Chiang Rai forum.

Very new here but I am struggling to understand why the OP gave such a categorical statement and then is now back. Hmmmm maybe I need to be educated to the way things work in Chiang Rai

How long did the transfer from Australia take?

I assume you did it yourself on the internet.

The deal was booked at 1102 29.08.11 and was in the Kasikorn account at 1122 30.08.11. Pretty good and minimal fees.

And yes I did it completely online.

I have no experience with other banks but I have opened an account with Kasikorn Bank and although the opening procedure took some time I am very happy with Kasikorn so far. I had ATM access immediately, internet access within 6 hours and I have transferred money from Australia today and they processed it very quickly and the charges were very reasonable. So far so good .

Thanks ett for the info, I will be in Phayao from the 16th August for a couple of months. I will definately be trying out this place.