cooked

Well you have to be sorry for the Russians. They had to do it because they were drunk. or still drunk. Seriously.

Rubber prices were moderately high so, this being Thailand, a lot of virgin forest was cleared to plant rubber. Big surprise, the price dropped and they complained and demanded subsidies or a guaranteed price.

James Collister is on facebook.

well i for one am glad of the thread; i had eaten the seeds when i bought a bunch of pods when in pethaburi with sis in law; however we had too many and its a lot of work to break apart and pick them out and peel the green part off... doesn anyone know if all species are edible and if its only the lotus seed pods (the botanical gardens here is always looking for interesting new things to try and i am their thai connection in some of the more exoteric edible green things, thru my husband. )...

curious also, do they have to be dry to fry them or are they fressh and fried?

I think my wife boils them to get the flesh off. When I said fry, it's more of a roasting really, very little oil. Same as nuts.

The Thai Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) has a name indicating that it bears nuts, but according to Wikipedia most of the plant can be eaten, this time stir fried. as can the American Lotus, Nelumbo lutea. There are many aquatic plants called lotus that probably aren't edible.

It is difficult enough to find a wall clock with Thai numerals let alone a wrist watch.

They replaced a perfectly good clock in our school with one with Thai numerals. It stopped after two weeks, and has stayed stopped. I wanted one to send back home, haven't found one yet.

There are severalplaces, easy to find, where you can buy.

Words fail me. I fear the worst. Let's wait and see.

Well, you have to play with quantities. Following one recipe twice, I got collapsed loafs. I halved the yeast content and they were pretty well acceptable. Too much yeast makes the bread rise too quickly. It then collapses. The salt is supposed to control the function of the yeast, but as I say, you have to lay with quantities. I don't bake bread becauseit comes cheaper (I don't think it does)but because I can make bread just like I like it.

Makro.

I was really hoping that double spur tracks on a consolidated and secured base along with modern rolling stock was the way things would go.. Sigh, another dream shattered.

Anyway who will drive these things and maintain them? Thais? Same as they construct highways?

My wife is Thai so it does not effect me personally but i have several friends who do not qualify for any visa category besides tourist. these are 20-30 somethings who make/have made very good money, are well educated and intelligent. they don't have or want a Thai wife.

there was an article on thai visa not too long ago by some government official saying they wanted Thailand to become the new hub of internet start ups and it is true that Thailand had all the requirements to be good for that sort of thing... it is unique country because it is affordable, fun, with easy visa regulations.

these 20-40 year old nomadic types are very strongly hated on Thai visa for what reason i do not know, jealousy i guess... apparently on thai visa people take triumph in anything they can, such as qualifying for a retirement visa.

but the response that these "hot shots" should pay 500k baht for an elite card is more like a fantasy than anything else. i mean unless you are rolling in dosh nobody is paying 500k for an elite card.The Thai government could easily go back to not enforcing the rules a year from now and you will have been the only idiot around who paid 500k for a visa. and a lot of shit can happen in 5 years. if they were prorating it annually it'd be more realistic as opposed to 500k upfront for 5 years. the elite card was never created for this explicit purpose more than likely it was designed as a vehicle for political graft, not as a "visa category".

my friends will probably just leave and if we are being honest about it, will probably be better off for it.

I don't get what you at and I couldn't care a hoot what other people do to stay here in Thailand there's a correct way and there's dodgy ways I guess, but marriage extension are 400,000 or show income of 480,000, and retirement extension are 800,000 or what ever it is, so what's all the rave on worry about 500,000.??

The card must be renewed after 5 years, that's what to worry about.

I noted actual repairs being done in Buriram Province of the Zinsano Amazon High Pressure Washer Sprayer at the tool repair department of Ruangsangthai Builders Merchants. I had bought some floor wax at the Buriram HomePro and picked up the July 17th through August 6th HomePro sales catalog which showed "sale" prices of Zinsano VIP pressure washer at 16,900 baht but in Buriram at a local family owned store it is in stock at 11,999 baht. The Zinsano Amazon is on "sale" at the Buriram Homepro for 2590, marked down from 4350 baht. What a surprise it is listed for 2250 baht everyday at Ruangsangthai, The normal price at HomePro of the Zinsano Artic power washer is 6350 baht, but it is now on sale at 4590. Yet the normal discount price at the family owned store for the exact same Zinsano model is 4270. I am of the opinion that the OP will find fair prices on Karcher or Zinsano high pressure water clears if he compares a high volume, low overhead family owned hardware store to a "chain store", which have color brochures listing "sales". Just as important as genuine discount prices, is which store has an actual repair department with staff trained by the manufacturers so you can get your power tools and garden tools repaired on site in a timely fashion. I am of the belief that every province has one or more family owned appliance shop and builders merchants shop which compete aggressively in price and with superior repair service to heavily advertised chain operations.

I am a big fan of Ruangsangthai, if you call and ask for Pichai you can make an appointment with the boss who speaks English very well.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ruangsuk+Building+Supplies/@14.999907,103.112769,16z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x311995bd8ff7da2d:0x1d00c04cf0877a48

Our local railway station has had a heap of sleepers and rails dumped for nearly a year now. Don't expect too much

We have a military government, used to carrying out orders to the letter, and I'm sure that many people in the army have bristled for years at the disregard for the law that is so convenient for corrupt people. Once they get their teeth stuck into something, they don't let go, what do you expect? Until the laws are (possibly) changed, the laws and regulations concerning, for instance, visas, overstay and visa runs will be applied strictly. Next thing: ensuring that immigration officers get their act together, meet up from time to time and make sure that the application of these rules, are universally and uniformly carried out. I believe that some immigration officers have been replaced already.

Understand your frustration. But if you are still at the airport, see if you can have another talk with an Immigration boss, show beforehand tickets, money etc.. I would not mention that you own property.

Denied entry decision can be reversed, it has happened.

As a last resort say that you intend to appeal, their reply could be that you will have to day to be in IDC up to 7 days, if you do that.

Good luck!

One thing that was clearly stated was that there will be no appeals process.

Eh? It grows like a weed everywhere, so why should people outside of Bangkok (and quite a few of us do live outside of Bangkok) buy it prepacked? I have seen them growing in Bangkok also.

A rather non-sensical Post surely?

I used to live in a predominantly Muslim area of Bangkok - so we often had cows wandering the street; I was never tempted to pop out and harvest a steak myself however, Villa is much more convenient.

Patrick

Well there you see the difference between people that live in Bangkok and people that live out in the sticks. We often stroll around taking stuff out of the hedges, we occasionally take lotus seed heads and Pak Bung also. Why is that nonsensical? My wife snorted into her rice when I told her that people actually buy stuff like this. Never mind, Our next Villa is 200Km away.

Hmmm - OK, my obviously misplaced or misunderstood sarcasm aside (sorry - we Brits tend to substitute sarcasm for humour!).

To contribute to the Thread in penance therefore:

One thing I love is Jackfruit seeds - and you will always see them in local Markets, being discarded after the Stallholder peels the flesh from the seed.

Boil in slightly salted water (which also removes any flesh still clinging to the seed), allow to cool and then fry slowly with salt etc. to taste - I prefer frying in butter but that's just me, I'm sure vegetable oil would work just as well.

Great with a late afternoon Beer or Whisky / Soda.

Patrick

Now that IS interesting, we have jackfruit and I dislike it, but I'll give that a try.

Cooked - this is an urban-rural thing with you, by the sounds of it. Be nice if you, instead, asked the missus the ways she uses the seeds, as there are people on TV who are interested. And then pass on the info - we would love that.

PS: I live on the fringe of suburbia. Two minutes on the bike and I'm among market gardens and small farms. So I'm not defending Bkk (where I wouldn't pick and eat the seeds, anyway).

Ok. I think you will find that most of these swamp growing consumables need human, cow or buffalo poo to grow, (water chestnut, pak bung, lotus) . The wife does various things with the seeds but she always starts with frying, basically treating them like they were nuts. So you can start there or get a curry going.

I have had a couple of students who spent time in Europe but didn't complete a full year of schooling there...

They had to repeat the grade in Thailand. However, if they can produce transcripts showing a complete year of schooling abroad, they should be able to skip that year in their Thai school.

Thanks. For various reasons, we can't get more than a 6 month tourist visa.

Eh? It grows like a weed everywhere, so why should people outside of Bangkok (and quite a few of us do live outside of Bangkok) buy it prepacked? I have seen them growing in Bangkok also.

A rather non-sensical Post surely?

I used to live in a predominantly Muslim area of Bangkok - so we often had cows wandering the street; I was never tempted to pop out and harvest a steak myself however, Villa is much more convenient.

Patrick

Well there you see the difference between people that live in Bangkok and people that live out in the sticks. We often stroll around taking stuff out of the hedges, we occasionally take lotus seed heads and Pak Bung also. Why is that nonsensical? My wife snorted into her rice when I told her that people actually buy stuff like this. Never mind, Our next Villa is 200Km away.

I have a UK passport and have the possibility of doing a house swap for 6 months (tourist visa for my wife) around 2017. Our brat will be 13 years old then and I am thinking about seizing the opportunity to get her speaking and learning English a lot better than she is likely to be if she stays here. I would also be visiting my home country for the first time in 16 years.

What would be the consequences at the school she is attending, would she start the missing school year again? What about timing, miss the first half of the school year or the second half?

This may sound like a naive question. It is. Thanks for any remarks or advice.

There is a Facebook page, seems to be based in Bangkok. Chiang Mai also has a group. .The problem is, that the parents lose interest when their children have left schooling, so things tend to be a bit erratic.

Eh? It grows like a weed everywhere, so why should people outside of Bangkok (and quite a few of us do live outside of Bangkok) buy it prepacked? I have seen them growing in Bangkok also.

You mean, some people actually have to buy this stuff?

NASA is full of bs.  Sorry space travel is a nice dream but we cannot travel at high speeds necessary to reach far away planets.  What NASA fails to tell you is that even if we could go at the speed of light necessary one mere grain of sand would blow a ship apart upon impact.  There is way to much debris in space to make any kind of serious distance.  Better to spend the money taking care of earth's problems and plenty of 'em.  Let the aliens come to us lol. 
 
NASA must be under a budget review.

How very different from my own dear days at Cambridge...

(well I had a beer there once).