Gsxrnz

i really don't get the venom. I can only suspect that many commenting have never engaged domestic help in thailand.

i also suspect that the same people vilifying the OP are the same that would condemn him for paying too much under other circumstances

Well said, far too much venom and ill feeling in this thread. I just checked back to see if there was any advice I could use in the future but I see the thread's been reduced to name calling and stone throwing. Seen better behaved unsupervised 4-year olds.....enough said.

My friend, an expensive lesson. Those bum bag/wallet bags are like a neon sign saying "take me, take me" Carry your wallet or cash in your front left pocket and make sure you keep your hand close to it. If ladyboys or kids approach just stick your thumb in your pocket and feel the presence of your valuables, also protecting your watch from getting lifted. If they feel your other valuables, as in your tackle, let them.....protect your wallet at all costs.

Also, don't carry those ridiculous sums of money around. You can open a bank account in 20 minutes and use ATM's like a local. And don't carry your passport either, just carry a copy.

How do you open a bank account without a work permit?

You walk into the bank and you say to the cute lady that will inevitably ask you how she can help you, "I'd like to open a passbook savings account please". And lo and behold, or "presto" if you prefer, she will open one for you.

Now the tongue is out of my cheek....take your passport, a document of any sort that shows your address (even a hotel business card will suffice), 500 baht minimum deposit, and it will be done. I can't remember the costs, maybe 150 baht for your ATM card.

atm card at Kbank is 400

the one with basic accident insurance cover included is 700

Cheers for that. I do remember losing my card last year and paying 400 for a replacement now that I think about it. And......at Kbank you also have the opportunity to have a picture of a very hansum man on your ATM card.

OP - I was fat from the age of 12 to 35. Had a lifestyle change and managed to shed 35 kilos and kept it off with no bounceback in nearly 20 years. Here's the trick - lose the weight, you've done it before so whatever you did actually worked and you can do it again. Try and regain that feeling of high self-esteem that you talked of and make that your focus. Do whatever it takes, dig deep, use screwy diet fads if you want, chain yourself to the bed, have your jaw wired together.......Ok that's extreme, but Mate you WANT to do it, only YOU can do it, start right now - go to the fridge and your food stocks and throw out anything that tastes good or is fattening!!! Don't go near a food shop for 3 days and you'll be on the road to recovery!!

My secret was simple, I stopped putting excessive amounts of food in my mouth and started doing moderate exercise such as walking only. Had tried numerous diet fads, just didn't work. The guaranteed way to lose weight is to eat less calories than you use in a day - simple stuff really - DON'T PUT TOO MUCH FOOD INTO YOUR MOUTH.

Keeping the weight off is another story. I became slightly obsessive and weighed myself every day for probably 10 years. Every day was a realisation that if I was 200g heavier than the day before, that's a little less I can eat today. You have to make sure you lock in that godawful fear of getting fat again. Being 200g heavier today means you may be 200g more the next day.........that's 6kg in a month if you get into denial.

Even now I weigh myself once a week. I have a "trigger weight". If I am approaching my trigger weight, I immediately cut down food intake and recheck more frequently. If I ever get past my trigger weight, it's rarely by more than 500g and I take INSTANT action to stop it getting any worse. Drink water, exercise, eat very minimal food.

If you're below the trigger weight you can enjoy all the foods you love, but as you approach it, you just cut down slightly. I eat copious amounts of the stuff that's bad for you but can still keep the weight off by not going into denial when you first realise that the weight is creeping up on you.

BTW, my trigger weight is 2kg more than my usual/ideal weight. I occasionally get 2kg below my ideal weight so I have a 4kg range - that's a lot of mackers

Make a promise to your self that your hands will not get within a foot of your mouth unless you're brushing your teeth, picking your nose, shaving, or drinking water. Semi-serious, you just have to have that willpower and realise that nobody is gonna do it for you, no book, no diet fad, no crazy food, no fairy Godmother.

Depends how much they "charge" you for the job itself - have they given you a price yet?

We shouldn't be charged anything as its through the complex...so although its free, we're compelled to tip something.

If they do a good job and don't make a mess, 200 baht between them. If they make a mess or do a messy job, 100 baht between them.

Hi All

I had my wallet bag snatched out of my hand 30th May by 2 guys on motor bike Soi Bakaue lost my passport and NZ$3200 and few other bits. Called 191 emergency and it just rang rang no answere tried 4 times.

Kiwi Kenny

My friend, an expensive lesson. Those bum bag/wallet bags are like a neon sign saying "take me, take me" Carry your wallet or cash in your front left pocket and make sure you keep your hand close to it. If ladyboys or kids approach just stick your thumb in your pocket and feel the presence of your valuables, also protecting your watch from getting lifted. If they feel your other valuables, as in your tackle, let them.....protect your wallet at all costs.

Also, don't carry those ridiculous sums of money around. You can open a bank account in 20 minutes and use ATM's like a local. And don't carry your passport either, just carry a copy.

How do you open a bank account without a work permit?

You walk into the bank and you say to the cute lady that will inevitably ask you how she can help you, "I'd like to open a passbook savings account please". And lo and behold, or "presto" if you prefer, she will open one for you.

Now the tongue is out of my cheek....take your passport, a document of any sort that shows your address (even a hotel business card will suffice), 500 baht minimum deposit, and it will be done. I can't remember the costs, maybe 150 baht for your ATM card.

Depends how much they "charge" you for the job itself - have they given you a price yet?

Somewhere in the Chiang Mai/Chang Rai area.

LR DSCF5615.JPG . LR DSCF5617.JPG

PS ... I like the safety aware red flag on the back of the load as a warning signal ...

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David, believe it or not I've actually SEEN that truck, or at least somebody with a load of wheelbarrows. But I saw it reversing backwards up an off-ramp because the overpass was labelled at 5.15M. Probably halfway between Lamchabang and the airport.

I've told many of my friends about it and it was my best story up until I saw two horses two months ago on the back of a Vigo in Jomtien - no frame around the cargo area and the horses were bracing themselves for the bumps and turns like seasoned veterans.

We've had one good nanny in the past two years. She was a five day a week 9 to 5 woman who cared for my son and when he was napping did laundry and light cleaning. When he didn't nap, she didn't do the extra work. She left abruptly as pretty much all domestic help does. She lasted eighteen months.

During that time my wife has had a second child and we've tried to use Vietnamese women. They are better workers but don't do as well as the Thais with caring for children. They talk on the phone constantly and leave the moment a better job appears.

We would love to try Burmese, Khmers, hell ANYONE! We are desperate like the OP. We up in Isaan if anyone knows of anyone.

For what it's worth, I did post an ad on Thai Visa and did get one call from a woman in Bangkok who wanted a Bangkok area job.

I think part of the problem is a general labor shortage and wage inflation. Thais have options and many pass on a crying baby with dirty diapers.

We are past the crying baby part so our job is a doddle, but we still can't find a decent nanny or HOUSEKEEPER or whatever. Our current "nanny" is asleep on the living room floor. Lazy ass.

I pay staff, straight out of university 15k to work in my office. To pay an uneducated, lazy nanny the same amount irritates the hell out of me. How difficult is it to turn on a washing machine, cook a few meals and sweep a few floors?

Try this website. I tried it over a year ago and got quite a few replies. I employed our woman through this website and she's awesome. Most of the girls/woman that replied seemed of very good calibre. There are also quite a few Filipino woman on there that are already based in Thailand. Well worth a look.

http://www.greataupair.com/Hire_Nanny_Babysitter/Aupair_Tutor_Housekeeper/Thailand.htm

After reading these comments I've concluded that we have the greatest live-in maid/nanny/cook/car cleaner/gardener in the whole of Thailand by the sound of it. I will be giving her a pay rise

As well you should.

As I read through this thread I am getting several impressions. That they should not be expected to be an all purpose servant and if they are it is made plainly clear to them at the start and the pay is a decent rate for what they do. Also I am getting the feeling that the ones like yourself with a successful situation treat them with respect and perhaps a part of the family.

I've been an employer most of my working life. Treating employees with respect goes with the territory - those that don't usually get bitten regardless of the country. There are huge differences in employing domestic staff in Thailand that have to be considered when weighing up the pros and cons of the job itself. Our lady is treated like one of the family but knows the boundaries (that she herself has set). She is respectful, as are we towards her. We do her favours, she returns in kind.

But remember that if she had a job at say a 7/11, she'd get less money and still have to pay rent and living costs. If she was living at her home and had no job, her family would expect her to do what she is doing for us for free - repaid by the roof over her head and the food that she eats.

She works for us and is technically on call 24/7, 4 days off per month. In effect her day job is cruisy - wakes at 6:30am, does a few chores, bathes and dresses our daughter, takes her to school, does a few more chores and is usually having a nap or free time from 10am till 3pm.

She eats with us, takes care of the daughter as we require and does other general household work in between watching TV, reading, or talking on the phone until bedtime at 7pm, then has free time. Sure there are other things she does, but as/when it suits her. She likes to be busy and will wash the car whether it needs it or not.

Compared to probably 80% of unskilled labour in Thailand, she's on the proverbial pig's back in terms of living conditions, work conditions, and money. To say that the salary I pay her would not get anything like that level of service back home is not a fair comparison. I'm paying truckies back home $30 per hour - that would employ two truckies in Thailand for a DAY.

Very true about battery heights. We use to use RL Bedford trucks in the Kiwi Army many years ago and one of the inheriant faults was with its battery. The battery compartment was under the passengers seat and over time the metal seat base would sag and end up touching the 2 terminals. Believe me, vehicle batteries can contain a fair charge.... in this case we usually flew out of the seat rather quickly from a burnt arse.

I have also seen vehicle batteries to arc weld metal together, powerful stuff. So you can imagine what may happen should the 2 battery terminals touch the bare metal of your car bonnet/hood.

I hope your car is safe!

Regards

Cheers fellow Kiwi - had the same problem with an old VW bug that I was a passenger in. Overweight mate shorted the battery under the rear seat, smoke and fumes, only a 2-door, funny as a fight at the time but we were only just out and the VW became an inferno.

An RL Bedford ay......probably still being used

What did you allegedly do to have them take your passport off you? How did they score your passport anyway - you weren't carrying it with you were you? That's a definite no-no.

If it's a traffic fine/bribe, negotiate it down and walk away with your PP. If it's something more serious, negotiate it down and walk away with your PP. If it's REALLY serious, negotiate it down and walk away with your PP. Do you see a pattern emerging here?

You've probably annoyed them by delaying payment anyway - this is their sandpit and you have to play by the local playground rules, whether you like it or not.

You speak Thai also. That should have given you an advantage in being a baak-waan and getting off lightly in the first place. What's the point of learning Thai of you haven't got the common sense to minimise a bribe before it gets beyond the initial first stage. The more players involved the price of tea increases - the first chance to negotiate is usually the cheapest for the payer. (I was going to say pigs at the trough but concluded that might have been derogatory )

I'm not criticizing for the fun of it meatboy, just trying to help, in case you want a higher proportion of members to actually read what you went to the trouble of posting.

i think the problem is,i was always told i was illiterate but i had a father,as we didnt have computers in the valleys in my days so till now i never knew what it[illiterate]meant,but never mind i am one happy dude living in los.hurry up darling with my breakfast we have to go to home-pro.

Actually Taff, If I read your posts and try and imitate a Welsh accent in my head as I read it, it makes perfect sense! And your literacy is quite good, but if you used the FULL STOP now and again, it might make it easier for those of us that can't think Welsh.

EDIT: And if it's any consolation, until I was 9 I thought a bas*ard was somebody who had parents from different countries. My Mum's a Scot and Dad's a Pom.

Why did you let the battery get fitted without asking and agreeing to the price first, or making sure it would physically fit the frame? The battery shops I've used in Pattaya have virtually every size battery known to man and if they didn't have the one you wanted one of their blokes will jump on the scooter and go and get one from somewhere.

Also, it was likely that with the drive home your old battery would have charged enough to give you another start or two the next day, so the "rush" to do something wasn't that urgent. It's rare that a battery just dies without prior indication of getting past its used by date. Unless of course the battery had been causing issues for some time and you had been ignoring it until it finally died for good.

EDIT - As the battery is oversize, make sure that it isn't over height as well and touching your hood/bonnet. There will be a sound proofing matrial on the inside of the hood - see if there are any indentations there. If it's touching then eventually the terminals will wear through their protective rubber cover and then the hood lining. The result will be a charred wreckage on the side of the road. Many people only worry about the depth/width when oversize and don't realise what over height can do.

I agree to some extent with your OP, but for me the weak part of the game is my fairway and approach shots, so I've just lived with my putting to some extent. Driving is fairly consistent now that I've slowed my swing down and actually improved distance and accuracy. Fairway shots are troublesome and inconsistent and get me into strife 40% of the time. Approach shots are about the same with 40% either getting me into trouble or costing me a stroke because I land short or go too long - lack of consistency.

Putting is rarely more than 2. I probably only ever 3 put twice a round on average and my caddy diligently records the putts, gives me major grief if I 3 putt. I wouldn't say my putting is strong but I seem to be able get away with 1's and 2's. I work on the "close enough is good enough" theory and tend to be short rather than long on the put - this means that I'm almost always within 2 feet after the first put but the 2nd is a gimme. Have fellow players who are technically better putters than me and regularly get 15 footers in one, but the number of times they overshoot and leave themselves a difficult 2nd put is quite astounding. At the end of the game I nearly always have the lowest number of puts.

It's not much consolation when you get to the green wasting one or two strokes in the fairway/approach, and then 1 or 2 put. So I'm trying to focus on general course management and club selection in the fairway rather than work on the putting. I suspect that if/when I sort my approach shots out that I will have to work on the putting - that's because I nearly always land too short on the approach and therefore have an easy chip to the green that means I regularly fall within that 15 foot range of the hole. If I manage to land more on the green from 150 yds out then it's likely that I'll have longer puts and will need to improve. Until then my putting will have to suffice.

Could have been anything. SV650, GSXR 600,750,1000. You can get aftermarket undertail exhausts for all these models. Doubt it was a SV as you would have heard the V-Twin throb, and it wouldn't have pulled away that fast.

Probably a Gixxer thou - 190 is nearly going backwards, 3rd gear roll-on from 190 would have seen it doing 250 in 2 seconds, 300 in another 2 seconds.

Note; I'm not advocating riding at these speeds on the road, not criticizing either.

Edit: Yeah, I never thought of a B King, never seen one in Thailand though. Same engine as a Hayabusa.

Op - was the bike fared or naked?

Naked. dont twist yer nickers about the speed , the rider was good.

Definition of "good" required please.

If he popped a wheelie as he passed you, he was good. Or if he dragged his knee at the next bend, he was good.......our Grannies could turn the throttle on a bike and hang on in a straight line.

So, if not Home Pro ... what other choices are there?

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The "homepro" type outlets are all the same in the way of "advice", so you really have no choice. The small side of the road Mum and dad type operations are often more helpful for smaller fittings etc, but you're stuck with the Homepro and similar outfits for larger stuff.

My MO is to refuse all help, "just looking" approach, and do just that.....look until you find what you want. Don't ask or accept any opinions from the staff, and as they follow you around (which can be annoying), hand them the stuff that you want to buy - saves pushing a trolley or carrying a basket. I've found they're quite good at sensing your personal space requirement and will hang back - if they don't, do a few quick 180 turns or walk backwards into them - they get the message.

Their stock is actually quite comprehensive so you'll normally find what you want, or close enough so that you can explain that you want one of "these", but bigger/longer/smaller etc. The trick is that you have to have a reasonable knowledge of what you want before you go there, and as somebody earlier said, the www provides a host of information.

There's privately owned hardware store in my home town, been in the same family for generations and stocked EVERYTHING.

Lets say you wanted a left handed thingamajig with a 3/8 female gas thread, two male spigots at a 45 degree angle, one with a gate valve and the other with a 10mm thread, with an inspection port (translation - something that's virtually impossible to find and probably never made anyway).

You could go and ask this guy for one of the above and he would look at you like you'd just stepped off a Martian spaceship, and say "yes of course we have those, do ya want it in brass, steel or plastic, and what colour handle on the gate valve?"

This shop had stock that was pre war as well as made yesterday. He'd get requests from all over the country for obtuse pieces or fittings. The warehouse covered half an acre and you could get lost if you weren't careeful. Half the boxes of stuff had prices in the old pounds, shilling a and pence days.

Ironically, most "earths" in Thai construction are there for decoration only. There might be an earth wire in your house/condo, but try and figure out if it actually goes to a decent ground of any kind. I've never yet seen an earth pole and strap outside a house or business.

Top prize goes to the muppet that installed my new water pump. Diligently earthed the green cable between the metal body of the pump and the plastic plinth it was mounted on. I explained the problem, even got the wife to explain with much use of the Thai language app on my phone to explain "earth, ground, plastic, metal, circuit, conductivity" etc. Totally over his head - always done it this way apparently.

The guy that wired a point for our washing machine, did something similar, he ran an earth wire from the washing chassis and then, with a screw, attached it to the concrete floor.

Concrete floor ??

Concrete is an insulator.

Except perhaps in the rain when is absorbes water.

Ground means "electrical" ground, NOT gravitational ground.

Yeah, we know that and you know that.....the point being that the some of the muppets that install electrical equipment here DON'T, and they think that by attaching an earth wire to anything that touches "the ground" as in terra firma is somehow a necessary part of the installation, regardless if that surface is conductive or not.

I'm just waiting to see somebody attach an earth clamp to a plastic water pipe, and then I'll really have seen it all!!

Could have been anything. SV650, GSXR 600,750,1000. You can get aftermarket undertail exhausts for all these models. Doubt it was a SV as you would have heard the V-Twin throb, and it wouldn't have pulled away that fast.

Probably a Gixxer thou - 190 is nearly going backwards, 3rd gear roll-on from 190 would have seen it doing 250 in 2 seconds, 300 in another 2 seconds.

Note; I'm not advocating riding at these speeds on the road, not criticizing either.

Edit: Yeah, I never thought of a B King, never seen one in Thailand though. Same engine as a Hayabusa.

Op - was the bike fared or naked?

Has anybody seen the temporary lighting that Thais set up at parties or weddings? They run a 2 wire cable through the trees or whatever back to the nearest mains supply, and then go around hanging light fittings with bare wires to each of the cables - attached with safety pins through each of the copper cores. The biggie is that they attach the safety pins while the circuit is live (and in the rain) - funny as a fight when somebody touches both safety pins and gets zapped.

Do you have a lease agreement? This sort of thing is normally covered in that. My lease says that any repairs under 1,000 THB are the responsibility of the tenant, implying minor breakages or replacement light bulbs etc. Furniture is covered by a fair wear and tear clause.

I'm sure your landlord will be reasonable - what nationality is he/she?