andreww

North was updated too, but to pre-mid-2014 photos. Surin is still heavily infested with beach-chairs here

https://www.google.com/maps/@7.9759528,98.2777997,674m/data=!3m1!1e3

what a blissful idiot... instead of taking care of real safety issues, like old/bad road markings, ineffective/missing traffic lights, lack of any rules enforcement whatsoever, thousands of unlicenced bimbos on the roads... he chose to put ADVISORY speed signs that do precisely NOTHING in Phuket in general and on that road in particular...

There is no hope. Everyone be safe on the roads.

+1, was wondering same thing today. Legit speed limit there should be 90km/h... noone's ever driving 50k on that road, gotta wait for a speeding ticket arriving soon

First of all, my deepest condolences to the parents, horrible story, totally avoidable death caused by criminal negligence from authorities. I can just repeat what been said 100s times here, but this story had really touched me and I can't stop thinking that something should be done about it to prevent it repeating.

If, heaven forbid, something like that happened to my son, I would make it the mission of my life to make sure those who are responsible are prosecuted, or even take vengeance myself. But I would never want to be in a situation like that to begin with, and that's why road safety is #1 (and pretty much the only) my concern about living in Thailand in general. Nothing being done at all about road safety education, road improvements, rules enforcement etc, and I can tell that at such pace Thailand soon will be #1 country in the world for traffic accidents-related deaths. If there is one area of community work I would like to be involved in, it will be road safety, to make this place better for everyone.

Problem with that is I don't recall any examples (in other countries) where road safety improvements had grassrootish origin, i.e. average road users ever started some campaign that made a difference?.. please correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm deeply sorry if it sounds unethical, but it is situations like Molly's that present an oppotunity to expose systematic flaws, prosecute those who should be held accountable and give a push to other people in power to start thinking about the problem.

Now, fingerpointing and social networks stunts won't help imho, for two reasons 1) Thai mentality, in which noone is held accountable, so any direct accusations will be deleted/ignored at best 2) Thai people don't care about safety in general, just like they don't care about garbage on their frontyards. One way it can work if we can really stir up a storm in social networks, so every Thai/farang person on Facebook knows what happened and who to blame (should be extremely careful about that, not to harm uninvolved people). Seems to me, Thais are more impressed with Chinese tourists' dumb stunts, than with real issues that slowly kill the country.

One way to make this issue noticeable is to create some "thai-style" demotivational photo with all details necessary (i.e. photos, names, places dates), and ask all our thai wifes/friends to share/promote it on facebook, tagging the mayor and municipality in those photos.

Another way is to make this information available to those above the mayor. The general recently announced the hot-line for expats and tourists (number is 1111). Can we make higher ranks aware of this terrible story if our good thai friends once again, call this hotline many times and flood their system with reports about Worawut Songyod's deeds?

Municipality fb page:

https://www.facebook.com/srisunthon

Mayor's profile:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002299525730

Municipality website:

http://www.srisunthon.go.th/index.php?route=common/home

can you please just link to a pin on google maps? much faster and easier for all...

It's funny, as I just noticed them too on my rooftop (Bang Tao), had to retreat back to my office downstairs. Seems they appear on particular nights, regardless of weather. Last year this happened around end of March (in Chiang Mai), and it lasted for one night only (house full of wings next morning). There must be some underlying rhythm or process that triggers swarming behaivour.. would be good if someone enlightens us.

try Russian fb group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/110970745658472/

people read English there and plenty make kefir at home.

never understood people spending money on parking to get to Laem Sing, when a much better and easily accessable Surin beach w/ ample free parking is just 2 minutes away.

Today we had much fun at Jungle Splash (got a good discount during Kids Day), until my wifey spot a nice chunk of POOP in the pool. I mean, screw parents, who bring their non-toilet trained kids w/o swim-diapers, but also screw slowpokes from JS staff, who said "yeah, a cleaner will come soon". Go figure what "soon" means in Thailand, but that was quite a shitty ending.

So just beware.

JS should start selling swim-diapers and force kids < 3y.o. to wear them. Could be a decent stream of income, as noone else sells swim-diapers in this country, I assume.

PIA offers more extensive IB program + DP, and Dulwich orphaned BIS exactly for reasons of low quality of teaching. What makes you think BIS is better than PIA in regards to academic performance?

http://www.phuketinternationalacademy.com/school-life/facilities/sports

Dunno about intl. teams training in BIS, but always heard (and seen it myself last week) European olympic athletes training in PIA pools.

Of course, it's the same company and certain facilities are shared (like large oval or olympic pools), but PIADS itself has little things like skate park, rockclimbing wall, 40cm pool (pre-k kids actually have swimming "classes" weekly! My son just turned 2, and he's a confident swimmer already regardless of depth, but he defo will enjoy safe pool time with 10 other kids), separate kids club (small scale of Patong kids club), etc. Gazillion of such small things make big difference to larger picture.

Another benefit — parents get complimentary Tanyapura membership... i mean, we live in phuket, pretty much everyone's got a gym and pool access, but it's nice to have access to tennis courts, larger pools etc. Short school days will encourage your own gym time (instead of driving home for couple hrs and back).

We'll give another fresh look to BIS next week, but BIS overall looks rather aged and somewhat conservative comparing to PIA.

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PIA preschool 315,000 vs BIS 310,000

How is that more reasonable?

there're some other fees&charges&levies involved, which make BIS more expensive (at least in the first year). But for those, who ready to pay 300-500k p.a. for school, such difference is rather minor anyway.

In the long-term, I'm certain that PIA's fees will surpass BIS' ones, as they (PIA) really seem to have vision for XXI century schooling, and that vision takes enormous resources to realize.

Spent last 8 hours on PIADS' website, reading all sorts of handbooks, another good thing about PIADS — they're extremely open and elaborate about whole education process, probably way too open in some areas. Just look at their welcome pdf for people who moved to Phuket: http://phuketinternationalacademy.com/files/PSG/Welcome_guide_for_new_PIA_families.pdf

it's probably the most extensive Phuket intro I've ever seen. I wish I had it 3 years ago when we moved here.

yep, PIA's fees structure is more reasonable, especially that buildings and grounds fee (which is government imposed capital levy): half of it is waived in PIA if a child is enrolled starting from nursery years. Not 100% certain how they do it, but that's what happens afaik.

Folks,

We're choosing a pre-school for our boy (with prospects to attend same institution till K-12), and living in Bangtao, we have only 3 viable options: KIS, BIS and PIADS.

Kajonkiet's educaitonal methods are offputting to say the least (they make 2 y.o. to sit through 2x45 mins language classes! Actual classes, with desks and blackboard, not some modern type of learn-thru-play curriculum), and their facilities in Cherngtalay are rather poor, so KIS is out of the equation.

BIS is apparently most well-established, and PIADS is its direct competitor.

We visited both schools, and were genuinely impressed by PIA facilities: fantastic quiet location, far from roads and with constant breeze from Khao Phra Theo, full-on sports equipment (even with rockclimbing walls and a skate-park), fresh healthy local organic food, good teacher:students ratio, everything is new etc.

Their mindfullness approach is appealing as well. And we like the location (as most other families will be from North Phuket, so easier to organize playdates, birthdays etc).

So basically, can someone say anything bad about PIADS that can render BIS as a better school for a child? I realize very few people have practical experience with both schools, but any reasonable argument is appreciated.

Thanks!

There is a petition on Change.org, calling to amend laws to make local authorities directly responsible for inappropriate warning signs, insufficient lighting etc. It's all in Thai, but everyone can sign (on the right handside):

https://www.change.org/p/%E0%B8%9E%E0%B8%A5%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A8%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%81-%E0%B8%9B%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B0%E0%B8%88%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%99-%E0%B8%88%E0%B8%B1%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%87-%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%90%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B5%E0%B8%A7%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B0%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%A1-%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%93%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%84%E0%B9%8C%E0%B9%83%E0%B8%AB%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%99%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%90%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%B5%E0%B9%88%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B5%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%82%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%94%E0%B8%9B%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%9B%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B0%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A8%E0%B9%83%E0%B8%AB%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%8A%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%94%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%88%E0%B8%99%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%B7%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%B5%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%8B%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%A1%E0%B9%81%E0%B8%8B%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%96%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%99

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Have a nice meal... alt=bah.gif>

http://www.thephuketforum.net/detail.asp?id=39603&toptype=news

what a trashy little article. Scary sensationalism and almost no useful info. Skip freshwater fish altogether and you'll be fine.

I think that the eggs of the sea urchin are used in sushi - not the meat.

gonads to be precise.

You want fresh or frozen?

whatever can be eaten as sashimi. We used to buy NZ sea urchins back in Australia, they were chilled in the shop. Have no idea if there'd been frozen before.

Folks,

Anyone knows where to buy sea urchin meat to be eaten raw sashimi-style? Choice foods does not have one.

is Maan Tawan affected as well?

Here's Tawan's sales pitch btw:

http://www.tawanproperties.com/download/pdf/Chom_Tawan_ebrochure.pdf

Gents,

I just broke my washing machine door handle.. It's an out of warranty case I'm sure, and damage is very simple to fix myself, but I need a spare part. Is there a well-stocked service shop in Phuket? It's EWF860 model.

That sounds fantastic, thanks a lot!

I mostly dig on mixcloud (just search "thai" and plenty of mixes, then it's up to your personal taste), and of course I came accross ZudRangMa compilations, they're amazing too!

Gents,

We've been successfully growing thyme, basil, tarragon, rosemary and mint on our rooftop/balcony. Now willing to expand (and we're total newbies in gardening).

Can please somebody experienced point which of the following herbs can be easily grown in Phuket climate? We use soil + drip irrigation (can engage hydroponics later):