User3

Yes, there are a LOT of people that do not have indoor plumbing in India. One of the reasons is that they consider it unsanitary. Who are we to argue that point??

But in general I've spent about 4 months there over the past 7 months.

It's not as bad as you might imagine (depending on your imagination) but generally you need to ratchet your expectations down a number of notches.

Certainly it is an interesting place, in a train wreck sort of way, and certainly it is well worth any angst you might feel to be able to experience

the reality of India.

Stay away from '5 star' places, and from tour groups and it's well worth the trip.

However, it's not for the faint of heart if you are going outside the normal bounds of travel.

Seems in the US you see them in every type of office store, mall , book store and kid's store

Does not seem to help much. Some US citizens can't point out USA on a map, let alone some other countries.

Wow!

Someone asks a simple question about globes, people comment on it, and you attack a poster for being American.

I'm sure glad I don't live in your head.

See post 66 in the thread. The OP talks about having a wife.

http://www.thaivisa....50#entry5279045

Thanks - mystery solved. Now what to focus on for the next 45-minutes before I finish work.

Edit: Mystery not solved. That is from the first poster who got mugged. We are talking about the other poster who claimed they were mugged the day of their posting. See http://www.thaivisa....50#entry5278611

Ah. My bad.

Hate to break it to you but blackberries are consumer items, essentially disposable. And certainly not worth 3 grand. And I can remember nights in Calgary when staggering back to hotel from that blues bar near the river (creek actually) where the feeling of impending doom was prevalent. Only thing that saved me and my pocket protector was the fact that I'd vomited all over myself on leaving the Blues Bar.

Reading half these responses, anyone would think it's just not safe to go out with more than 100 baht in your pocket and that just isn't true.

As the OP said, wrong place, wrong time. Could've happened anywhere.

Personally, there's no f***ing way I'd've given up my shit like that but I can understand why an older guy might've been inclined to do so.

Just dont forget the demographics here most guys are old and out of shape. But i am in shape and younger... but i wont argue much against someone with a knife.

One guy showing a knife. 3 other guys potentially with knifes and Thai boxing skills.

Protecting a few electronic items isn't worth your health or life.

Actually the reality of it was that the 3rd guy had a small tactical nuke that he'd already stolen from the Iwhosians a few weeks ago when they had been drinking too much. Well, they were legless after all.....

so the idea of giving up the blackberry is not such a bad idea. Better than having all of the Sukhumvit leveled.. or.....

hmmm

Weren't Orient Thai blacklisted a few years ago?

Plenty of ways to live dangerously in LoS without boarding one of their planes.

yes but meanwhile they changed the name and painted the airplanes new.

Their airplanes are a bit old (OK, they are very old, but they are painted new), but else they are more friendly and professional than NOK (at least the flights to NST were). I like them.

I fly before Berjaya Air in Malaysia......nothing can be worse.....

Orient Thai owned ONE Boeing 747 that was blacklisted from International airspace (I think that its still at Ranong airport). However One-Two-Go, of whom Orient is the parent Company, operated internal flights as One-two -Go until the Phuket accident a few years ago. They have now dropped the One-Two-Go title in favour of using the parent Company's name!

There is an Orient Thai 747 that is being dismantled in Bangkok. It is in a field just off Ramkamhang around soi 40 or 50 I think.. Near the Honda motorcycle training track. Looks like the dismantling has sort of petered out over the past year. Not much progress since then.

I can remember flying U-Tapau to Bangkok in about 1997 or 98 numerous times. No matter what the date, flight or time of day or week it was always "Captain McNulty" that was out on the tarmac looking over the plane. Given that it was mostly a decrepit MD-80 we were all relieved that he was so attentive. He was an old grey-haired guy that did not need a walker to get around, but was not very far from it.

But the flights were cheap and uneventful.

Next time you are near a Canadian Tire store (assuming you go home once in a while) grab one of their little yellow 'Smith's' sharpening stone. It's about the size of a small computer mouse, has two slots one for carbide and one for ceramic. I have a large Gatco sharpening kit, smaller diamond hones and misc. whetstones. This little gizmo, which costs a huge 7.95 CDN$ works as good as or better than anything I've ever used.

In the past 2 years I've brought back about 9 or 10 of these things to Thailand and everyone I've given one to has raved about them.

For our Induction cooktop we use Meyer pans and frypans, which are pretty cheap and do a fine job. And for a wok we use a Calphalon the was bought at the Emporium. It is 13" size (33 cm) and works very well. Also was not particularly expensive.

Arrived from Mumbai at 7:40 am on Friday and immigration was 50 minutes. Thai only immigration booths had 4 clerks and only about 3 people showing up every 10 minutes or so. Rest of the time they just chatted away to each other.

People with kids were pulled out of the main immigration line-ups once in a while to go to the idle Thai only booths, but not very often.

Actual processing was quick and efficient.

Similar here, a bit better than your case. We may or may not expect water from the Klong.

Nobody knows anything....

Wait and see.....I would rater prefer one real problem instead of days of waiting. I think 10 times per night we have a look outside if the water is coming or not.

Just went to help the villagers to put sand in bags and move bags, at least i did something. Paid more as my fair share for the sand bags too. So the village is a bit better protected.

Its just the lack of information about the state of the river that annoys me. They could at least say how high it is and what is expected.

There is a rather large amount of info on the river and dam levels as well as the diversion flow rates both east and west of Bangkok.

Google is your buddy, but try these urls to get you started:

http://www.thaihydra.org/index.php/water-situation/2010-07-18-04-21-08/2010-07-18-04-42-51.html

http://www.arcims.tmd.go.th/DailyDATA/

http://flood.gistda.or.th/

http://water.rid.go.th/flood/plan_ew/plan_ew.html

(above link to water flow rates for entire flood area)

http://www.hydro-5.com/HD-06/6-PRAKAS.htm

(above link to water flow rates for Chao Praya and water levels at various locations along the river)

http://www.navy.mi.th/hydro/Chaophraya/OBSHD_SEP54_htm.htm

(above link to Thai Navy site for tides) (note- I.E. mandatory for this site, links don't work with firefox)

http://www.navy.mi.th/hydro/Chaophraya/rtnhq.htm

(above link to Thai Navy site that plots Chaophraya level against tide levels)

Note- above url needs I.E. to function, links don't work in firefox also,

the last url has river levels from 2 locations on 2 separate graphs.

There are tons more sites but my Thai is not good enough to make any sense from them.

When using Google, search in Thai language and not English and you'll see that

the amount of info is really quite amazing.

If anyone is interested, try this gov't site for weather related info. Year to date rainfall map is pretty interesting.

http://www.arcims.tmd.go.th/DailyDATA/

General info for you.

The .pdf is from a few years ago, the quoted text below was relatively recent.

either way- Minburi looks less attractive than it did a few years ago.

-------------------------------------------

PRESS RELEASE:

SINKING BANGKOK: JOINT THAILAND-EUROPE RESEARCH REVEALS FAST SEA LEVEL RISE AND LAND DOWNFALL IN THAILAND.

Bagnkok: July 14, 2010: Mean sea level in the Gulf of Thailand is rising significantly faster than global average and the tectonic plate in this region has been found to be moving downward even faster since the happening of Sumatra-Andaman mega-earthquake in 2004. Using satellite microwave data and in-situ measurements, the collaborative Thailand-Europe GEO2TECDI project determines sea level rise rates in the Gulf of Thailand, plate motion velocity at various locations in Thailand and surface subsidence around Bangkok. After 18 months of intensive investigation a group of Thai and European researchers led by academics of Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University and Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, reveals the alarming findings that could change all currently- adopted future scenarios of singking Bangkok

Sea level change is a primary indicator of climate change. While a globally-averaged rising of around 2mm/yr has been accepted by scientific community, it has long been a subject of debate whether actual mean sea level in the Gulf of Thailand is rising or falling as reported by some studies. This latest research employs satellite radar altimetry observations, GPS measurements and rigorous statistical processing to remove non-climatic signal from tide gauge data. The sea level change study group declares the issue is now resolved. Long-term rising rates since 1940 at around 3 and 4 mm/yr are clearly detected along the west and the north coast of the Gulf respectively. throughout the Gulf of Thailand, fast rising rates are also detected by satellite altimetry (1993-2008) with no evidence of sea level fall.

The plate downfall is revealed by extremely precise GPS measurements that have been conducted at certain locations in Thailand for more than a decade. GPS data depict slow and steady uplift before the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman mega-earthquake, after which the plate has been moving down at a rate currently estimated around 10 mm/yr. The seismic-induced phenomenon has been unaware and never been factored in any impact assessments so far. Neglecting the downfall would lead to significant underestimation of coastal impact from the apparent sea level rise, a total magnitude that is observable as the combined effect of actual rising of the sea and the downward motion of the land.

1

Another GEO2TECDI research team uses a special kind of satellite radar-image, known as Synthetic Aperture Radar or SAR, to evaluate the subsidence of top soil and sediment layer around Bangkok. Bangkok subsidence rates are well-known from multi-decadal ground surveying but data are available at only limited monitoring stations. When a subsidence rate is required at a particular location, only an approximation, not the actual value, could be obtained by the interpolating survey data from those monitoring points. The land subsidence study team uses Persisten Scatterer Interferometric SAR or PSInSAR, a highly-sophisticated technique to process a collection of 19 Radarsat-1 images spanning late-2005 to early-2010 period SAR images. The resulted points, at least a thousand times denser than those available from traditional ground survey, provides unprecedent detail of Bangkok subsidence pattern. East side of the Chao Phraya river mouth, north-east Bangkok and southern Pathumthani are found to be subsiding fast at rates greater than 15 mm/yr. Elsewhere in Bangkok the subsiding rates are 10 mm/yr or less.

The impact of sea level rise in the Gulf of Thailand is being amplified by land subsidence and plate downfall, making Bangkok and surrounding provinces extremely vulnerable to floods, coastal erosion, salt water intrusion and environmental degradation. As a foundation step before adaptation/mitigation strategies can be devised, all these dynamic processes require continuity of precise monitoring through which reliable projected magnitudes are available to coastal planners and policy makers. Further Thailand-Europe collaboration has been agreed on the application of space-geodetic techniques for this important task.

About GEO2TECDI: GEO2TECDI (Geodetic Earth Observation Technologies for Thailand: Environmental Change Detection and Investigation) is a collaborative project under Thailand-EC Cooperation Facility program (TEC) program funded by the EU Delegation to Thailand. The research teams are academics and technical staff of Chulalongkorn University, Delft University of Technology, ENS, Darmstadt University of Technology, Royal Thai Survey Department, Royal Naval Academy, Hydrographic Department, and GeoInformatic and Space Technolody Development Agency (GISTDA).

####

2

Vongvisessomjai, S. Will sea-level really fall in the Gulf of Thailand? Songklanakarin J. Sci. Technol., 2006, 28(2) : 227-248

Rate of sea-level changes due to climate changes vary according to latitudes: namely (i) in high and middle latitudes, successive glacial, interglacial and interstadial conditions occur with significant sea-level rises, and (ii) in low latitudes, successive humid and arid conditions occur with small sea-level rises or falls. Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) projection of future sea-level rise in the high and middle latitudes of 31, 66 and 110 centimeters in 100 years for low, middle and high scenarios respectively is wrongly accepted to be applicable to the Gulf of Thailand, which is in the low latitudes, where air and seawater temperatures are already high, and therefore, an insignificant increase of temperatures is found in several large cities. Analyses of 56 years data of tides recorded at Ko Lak, Prachuap Khirikhan province and Sattahip, Chonburi province revealed that sea levels are falling slowly, which is consistent with results of Gregory (1993) who reported sea-level falls in the low latitudes and the Gulf of Thailand of 0-50 milimeters, using U.K. Meteorological Offices Coupled Ocean-atmosphere General Circulation Model. In conclusion, the sea-level in the Gulf of Thailand is found preliminarily to be falling slightly or not changing, contradicting the belief that sea-level is rising in the Gulf of Thailand at the same rate as that in the high and middle latitudes. This should be investigated in more detail in the near future.

Key words : greenhouse, ocean-atmosphere, sea-level fall

1D.Eng. (Coastal Engineering), Prof., Water and Environment Expert, TEAM Consulting Engineering and Management Co. Ltd., 151 TEAM Building, Nuan Chan Road, Klong Kum, Bueng Kum, Bangkok 10230 Thailand. Corresponding e-mail: [email protected]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

gound_subsidence_bangkok.PDF

On Ramkamheng soi 190 area, Saen Sab level this morning is about 5cm higher than yesterday. On our little spur klong the walkway is not yet covered.

You can try M&D computer at Pantip plaza. They are pretty reliable and are very proud of their workshop which is located at the back of the store. In my experience with those external drives, normally it is the power supply that is built into the case that fails. If you like to tinker you can just remove the drive from the case and plug it into your computer using a sata cable or ide/sata adaptor if needed.

I have a question regarding car prices.

We are looking for a new car and I see car prices from various advertisers on web pages.

My question is- how much difference is there, if any, from the asking/advertised price to the actual sale price? One hears so many conflicting stories that it's difficult to ascertain the reality, so I thought I'd come to the experts.

We are looking at not more than 3 years old Camry, Accord or Teana but in some cases the used asking prices are pretty much the same as new prices.

Any thoughts on the differences between asking/selling price would be appreciated.

Location is Bangkok.

I notice however, that at the top end of the inlet extension pipe there is part of the pipe that goes UP (well above normal water level in Septic tank and higher than inlet pipe entrance. I am not a plumber but I am assuming that upward "bit of pipe" vents inlet pipe and does the same job as if the pipe did not extend down into the Septic tank but was cut off to above water level.

Can any expert confirm/reject this?

I can see a value of the inlet pipe going down into the Septic tank to help avoid waste automatically conglomerating on the top/surface near the inlet pipe.

Regards, Dave

Well. no expert here but the pipe that goes up into the air (so to speak... depends on your diet I suppose) space in your tank most likely functions as a vacuum breaker.

I'd also say the inlet pipe needs to be fairly deep into the bowels (sigh..) of the tank in order to not disturb the matt that sits (notice I didn't say squats..) on top of the liquid level.

For that reason, I'd be hesitant to cut off or in any way modify the internals of the tank that would change any dynamics of the system (tank system).

If venting fixes the toilet draining problem that is great, but to me it's dealing with a symptom and not the root cause.

I'd still look at the drain field and septic tank level in relation to each other but that's just me....

Glad you are making progress.

This is not a venting problem.

It is either a sizing problem,( septic tank improperly sized relative to amount of water being drained) or a tank drainage problem,( water is not draining from the septic to the leach field) because of incorrect plumbing in the septic tank, or a perk problem( the leach field is not draining due to heavy rain or incorrect design).

Have to agree with you on this, but likely not tank sizing problem as if it was all toilets would be...er...a bit constipated.

If I were the OP I'd look at the height difference between the septic tank outflow and the field. If the field, or in this case some sort of 'rings' which are likely similar function, is installed too high relative to the tank, then the tank will not drain to proper level and remain full(ish) thus put 'back pressure' on incoming line by having inlet line full of liquid that must be displaced before (during) flush, perhaps causing slow drainage of toilet. It is easily possible that piping configuration/slope/size/number of elbows/etc results in lower than optimal dump (sorry) rate of one toilet but not perhaps of others which have a less restricted flow path.

My 02 Cents.

The Tavern on Soi 4...Nanna ...

Best Burger in Bangkok...by far

Hand made fresh beef burgers with all the fresh fixings available..

cooked on BBQ right in front of you at the bar.

nice little local sports bar The Tavern :jap:

Do you mean Sukhumvit soi 4? I can't find anything on google earth indicating a Nana soi 4, and also cannot find anything when searching 'The Tavern'??

Oh, as an aside...

Even though the thread is over 3 years old....

White Spot burgers are called 'Burger Platters' for the most part. The Triple-O refers to the sauce. Not the burger.

anal little git eh??

Sounds like inverters are not for us! BTW, I thought my post was very clear - we have two rooms to cool at night for the mid term and then one during the day and one at night and for what it's worth I usually set a daytime temp of 25 and a night time one of 22 and regard them as my comfortable setting.

From what you say, if a setting of 25 degrees during the hot season rules out the use of an inverter it seems to me that they'd be pretty much useless in Thailand for most people at the time they need them most. I don't know anyone who sets their thermostat much higher than that. You have to wonder why they sell them.

The intent of an inverter controlled compressor is to allow the compressor motor to run at reduced load (therefore power) after the room temperature requirement has been satisfied. This reduced compressor speed requires less electricity which is where the savings come in. In order to see a savings you need to have the aircon(s) sized properly for the room area. There is no requirement to run them a long time. There is no particular requirement to have a specific thermostat setting. All that is important is that the unit be on long enough for the room to be cooled and the compressor to start cutting back.

In our experience, we have used Daiken inverters. Not for any particular reason other than good price, good reputation etc. The house is 233 m.2 on two floors. Bottom floor is open plan. There are 2 aircons there that are run about 4 hrs a day- sometimes 5 or 6 but normally 4. Upstairs are one each inverters in the master bedroom and movie room, and an old Mr. Slim in the guest bedroom. The master b/r aircon (set at 25 deg) is run from 9 pm until about 3:00 am when the timer shuts it off and the ceiling fan takes over. The movie room air con is used about 2 hrs a day every second day or so. The old style in the guest bedroom is almost never used- don't get many guests... might be my deodorant......

We also have Inverter fridge and an Induction cooktop. (Bear with me, there is an end to all this in sight.) So cooking on electricity only- no gas in the house.

Our electric bills are usually in the 580 to 620 kw/Hrs a month range.

Check with the 'Nadz Project' web site, they have prices on-line. Google will give you the address.

If it is an older model, you can replace the drive yourself. It involves removing a plastic cover, removing one screw, sliding the drive out (it is on a tray) then removing the old drive and putting the new one in the tray and sliding it back into the unit then replacing the screw and the cover. And it takes less time to do than to read this.

One caveat, if you are replacing with a new drive- consider putting in a 5400 rpm and not 7200 as the higher speed drives run a lot hotter. And cooling is a problem with PS3s. I just put a 320 gb drive in my oldest PS3 (Phat model) and it took no time at all and was super easy.

Indeed, as mentioned the PS3 games are region free. On my PS3s I use games purchased in London, Houston and Vancouver (Canada) as well as a couple I got here in BKK, and all work fine.

In Thailand?

Wait another five to eight years, then maybe we have 3G.

4G comes when it's obsolete.

Well no- we were in Laos a few weeks ago and my wife's smartphone worked fine on their 3G network.

Don't you want to wait for 5G??

Like a few of us, I've been watching the countdown timer for the Enigma Global web site for the opening of their track in Ban Bueng. As the timer has counted down to zero, now it is reversing into negative numbers. Is this thing real? The track I mean. It's touted as a 4km FIA certified facility. Like many I've heard rumors of a new track being built but mostly they have indicated a more south location, in Chonburi province I believe. These rumors have been around for about 11 years that I know of.

Is there anyone with more/better/real/factual knowledge of this topic?

Like most people that are susceptible to scams- a racing fan will want to believe what seems to be true. Example- why the hell did Red Bull bring an F1 car all the way to Thailand just to do a tiny exhibition run downtown? Hmmm... And why is the now Post advertising those really cheap made in Thailand racing cars?

The site is generating 88 hits/day on average so someone else must be curious as well.

Anyone live near their supposed headquarters and has actually seen if the exist besides virtually?

Web site for track:

http://www.enigmacircuit.com/

Web site for 'Enigma Corporation'

http://www.enigmathailand.com/

Certainly is an enigma......

From Ehow:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4836283_repair-mbr-windows.html

Sometimes you can corrupt Windows' MBR (Master Boot Record) unintentionally, through installation of another operating system for instance, and you need to repair it before Windows can boot again.

The error message that you usually get is "Operating System not found". Under Win 95, 98 and ME, you could have used a standard MS-DOS utility called FDISK in the Command Prompt console.

However, FDISK is not distributed with Win NT, 2000, XP, Vista, and 7. So you either have to resort to finding an alternative utility called MbrFix.exe and run it from floppy, optical or USB drive or follow

these direction from the installation DVD to repair your MBR. While these directions are specific to Win 7, you maybe able to use the knowledge gained to apply to your particular Win install.

Google it.

I've used Ubuntu and have had no problems with it dual-booting nor had it screwing up a dual boot system. Again, Google is your friend as there is a wealth of info on various ways to set

up dual-boot systems.

There were problems with the original PS3 models that involved failure of the laser.

I had to get the laser in of mine replaced about a year ago. Does it play any other discs? Movies? mp3?

I'll try and find the name/address of the place I took it to. It's in Bangkok, as that is where I live.

It won't play anything now, or maybe I didn't know that it won't play the demo's that he has saved on the HDD. I popped in a movie and it won't play. It just doesn't recognize the discs, they don't even show as loaded. I live in Bangkok as well, so any place here in town would be great. Thanks.

The repair place I mentioned was the Nadz project at:

http://www.nadzproject.com/product_125943_en

good luck.

There were problems with the original PS3 models that involved failure of the laser.

I had to get the laser in of mine replaced about a year ago. Does it play any other discs? Movies? mp3?

I'll try and find the name/address of the place I took it to. It's in Bangkok, as that is where I live.