cooked

We definitely noticed a difference when we put in insulation above the ceiling. We also installed insulating foil under the roof (stops radiant heat). Anyway now, if you are foolish enough to stick your head up there, the heat is intolerable. We also put a ventilation aperture at both ends of the roof space, I don't know about putting a fan in up there as some people recommend.

What type of insulation did you use?

15cm of (sorry I'm not sure what you call it here) glass fibre 'bats' with aluminium foil would have been enough I guess, but we put in 20cm. I know that there are firms that will spray polyurethane foam up in your roof space but this is more expensive.

20cm Q-Blocks? Great, way to go.

I think that the main source of radiated heat in a house in Thailand is through the roof, maybe you want to look at some Australian websites, they have the same problems.

I can't help much but as far as your second question is concerned, this is for sure better than the way people were treated in the UK up until the 80s. When you were in, you were in, and it was chemical clobbering every day, very difficult to get out again.

We definitely noticed a difference when we put in insulation above the ceiling. We also installed insulating foil under the roof (stops radiant heat). Anyway now, if you are foolish enough to stick your head up there, the heat is intolerable. We also put a ventilation aperture at both ends of the roof space, I don't know about putting a fan in up there as some people recommend.

All merry nit picking apart, I wonder if the OP has any kind of insulation in his house? We have insulated the ceiling and (sunside) walls of our house, and plan on extending the roof to keep the sun of the wall exposed mainly to the sun as well as providing an outside living space.. Double glazing? Dunno about that.

Anyway, we use the A/C only occasionally and I wonder sometimes if it was worthwhile installing.

Don't forget to mount bloody great loudspeakers on the roof so that you can blast the neighbouring temple out of bed at 4 o'clock in the morning. Ok, wrong vehicle, but as long as we're on a brain storming....

My wife stuck her finger down her throat and imitated somebody being sick when I told her this - ฿10 000.- a month? Admittedly we have a modest house in Isaan and I haven't moved in there yet, but with 60M2, A/C, fridge and stuff, she has never paid more than ฿300.- a month. (The house will double in size very soon).

I am constantly astounded by the amount of money that people claim to need to live in Thailand, even the consulate in Basel was puzzled by this posting when I was there recently. I hope she is right as I plan to live on ฿46 000.- a month.

I'm thinking of getting my money ฿20 000 at a time per ATM (apparently Aeon doesn't ask ฿150.-, I will see what the exchange rate is like) and taking it to my Bangkok bank and stick it on my account once a week. This costs time, not money. Bad idea maybe?

'chemical free'? Sounds like 'up to 99% economies' and similar expressions. I don't think that chemical free means the same thing as no chemicals.

It means NO ADDED chemicals...

no it doesn't. Why don't they say 'no chemicals'? They can't say that because chemicals are being absorbed, transformed and produced by every being that lives, breathes and goes for a shit. So if you accept natural chemical substances, where is the boundary with artificial substances? If you think that expressions like this mean anything in the modern world, and especially in Thailand (maybe you don't) then maybe you should get out a little more. No disrespect meant.

This should not surprise anyone. Wasn't it just a year+ ago that containers of vegetables from Thailand were tested in England, and found to have very dangerous levels of many pesticides, so the English banned Thai vegetables? Makro now has labels for organic grown, called chemical free. The label is right on the shelf's price tag. Way to go Makro!!!!! I watched a neighboring farmer spray massive amounts of pesticides on his marigolds, for sale to put in peoples cars for Buddha. We warned him that hes was poisoning his customers, and himself by his daily spraying, even arranged for government agriculture men come to explain to him as well. he didn't listen-he died painfully less than a year later, mid-thirties, his body's functions just stopping, organs quitting. The concept that insect poison can also kill humans is just lost here.

'chemical free'? Sounds like 'up to 99% economies' and similar expressions. I don't think that chemical free means the same thing as no chemicals.

A tentative reply: I was always told never to concrete wood in. I often did it for fencing jobs and they held up for 20 years, which would have been normal for (pressure treated) posts that hadn't been concreted in. I might suggest screwing a strong endless screw (is that the correct term) or two into the post and concreting that in. I have done this a few times on small construction projects and was able to use the screw to adjust the height of the post with some precision, you might need to think about the details of that process.

And finally you might want to Google coolthaihouse, good advice there

With the exception of bytebuster's, all of these opinions reflect a truly depressing degree of ignorance. If you want to theorize about languages why not read a book about it instead of inventing subjective types of distinction and then theorizing ad hoc about the cultural implications that follow, notably to the benefit of your own culture?

The Thai language is not inferior because it borrowed an alphabet. Since writing was only invented three or four times, nearly all writing systems are borrowed. It is not inferior because of the number of words in its lexicon. English has more words because they borrowed both from their conquerors (French-speaking vikings) and their conquerees as well as trading partners. French has fewer words because they didn't have much of a global empire and anyway preferred to discard synonyms for aesthetic reasons. Thai is not inferior because of the number of exceptions to its pronunciation rules. English has more exceptions while Chinese has no pronunciation rules based on writing at all. And so on.

Yes, I have now changed my mind after all this education.

Thai language is no better or worse for ANY PURPOSE than English or any other language.

Thai culture has no common characteristics that make certain parts of it better or worse for ANY PURPOSE than any other culture.

All people are exactly equal in ALL WAYS; none inferior or superior to any others in any respect.

There, you guys happy now?

Sincerely,

Likely PRIVILEGED Endlessly Apologetic Idealist

In my opinion, English is a dominant language, the proof being that it has no problems accepting, absorbing, adopting words and even phrases from other languages. The french get indignant if you use 'Franglais', they even have a committee for inventing words that are otherwise known all over the world (they don't, or shouldn't, say spam, email or computer). This is a sign I think of a decaying culture.

Thai also seems not to accept foreign words (apart from keeks, bia, pang...). This isolates the Thais, which seems to be what they want.

Everyone gets the language that they deserve.

Production of an ID card to qualify for health care is gradually being phased in, the Tabien Ban is on it's way out. And I believe that even if a Farang does get an ID card here for some reason, he still won't qualify for free treatment.

Something strange here, I brew my own and leave it to mature for at least 8 weeks, it gets better. True, as it gets better I tend to drink more, hence the hangover.

8 weeks!!!!

You've never been in Saudi have you!

Home brew there was meant to be 10 days 'matured' before drinking but sometimes you just had to sample it at 7 days and then suddenly it was gone before 10 days was up!

Ah well, don't forget that when I feel energetic I am putting 60 liters a month into my custom built beer cellar to mature.

I bought a similar water filter because there was a metallic taste to the water, and it worked. However I don't think that these filters remove bacteria, which usually isn't a problem unless there is an usual infiltration of your water supply somewhere, which can happen anywhere.

Something strange here, I brew my own and leave it to mature for at least 8 weeks, it gets better. True, as it gets better I tend to drink more, hence the hangover.

Does anyone know how I can get water tested to make sure it is safe to drink? What government agency I can go to? I've ask many people here (Thai's) and they have no idea. All assistance and coments appreciated.

I was told that I can get a water analysis and soil analysis at the local agricultural college/university. I haven't tried it yet, maybe to be sure you could take your samples to two different places.

I do know that to do a proper analysis you have to be careful about time of day/day of the week, place and method of sampling, storage and transport of the samples. Try googling 'water samples analysis' . I came up with http://www.gov.pe.ca/photos/original/eef_watersemi.pdf

Repeat after me: I must not answer posts about Thailand as though everybody lived in Bangkok / Pattaya and sends kids to International schools. It is not about jealousy on my part, I am doing ok with my ฿46 000 a month in Isaan, very well in fact. We do not live in a hovel.

will be open, unless they close it

Great answer, thanks.

Thanks for the other answers also guys.

Listening to the BBC this morning it sounds like there is going to be some kind of dust up about THE court judgement coming up today, independent of which way the decision goes. Anybody willing to speculate on the airport still being open on the 28th?

Another reason to move out of there and get your garden going in the sticks.

Switzerland went through this kind of stuff about 40 years ago when they finally persuaded conservative farmers to start spraying, it took two generations to get things to an acceptable level. Until about 10 years ago you could buy any quantity of pesticide or weedkiller, but the sellers looked completely gob smacked when you asked for a measuring container. Same here, the Thais don't measure their dosing.

My wife buys vegetables with flies buzzing around them, she reckons that they are the relatively harmless specimens.

hey, how about writing a book about women in Pattaya? The aim would be to get it banned on the first day...

7. Listen to Barry Manilow

Judge Paul Sacco of Colorado, tired of doling out ineffective punishments for people playing their music too loudly, in 2008 decided to fight fire with fire. Instead of the usual fine, he ordered repeat offenders to listen to his music selections for one hour at high volume. Sacco's eclectic collection included easy-listening maestro Barry Manilow and the theme song from the children's show Barney and Friends.

(

"This is a way, when I look back, of teaching manners to people," Sacco said.

from http://theweek.com/article/index/229828/6-ridiculously-bizarre-court-sentences

so there is justice in this world, albeit a little harsh in this case.

when was the book issued?

I've found that Thai people get more upset when I refuse to speak English with them if my Thai is better than their English, which happens quite often these days.

In an ideal world, each person would try to speak the language of the other. However if you do that there will be less possibilty of helping out with each other's little FUs.

Why worry? We used to find ourselves talking three or more languages at the dinner table and the only people that had problems with it were the English. This isn't meant as a derogatory comment about the Anglo-Saxons; they rarely hear other languages as they are growing up and so don't have the habit of 'listening to', instead of just hearing, speach. I must admit that this may no longer be true in my home town of Leicester, UK....

(40% 'other mother tongue than English' I believe)

Not to me it doesn't, no, but you always get people correcting mistakes /typos on this forum. I get your point: it's communication that is important, after all, the language of love is universal, if people can't understand imperfect English, how are they ever going to learn Thai? (not that they would want to...)