cooked

For me a car is something that gets me from A to B. Remarks about the Almera looking ugly seem to be the fashion at present, 30 years ago it would have been thought of as being very stylish, I myself as well as our Thai neighbours think that it looks OK. The Almera gets me 18.7 Km / Liter at present, is very agreeable to drive (love the automatic transmission) and has taken me all over Thailand with much less hassle than when I was driving the truck. I reckon that, for the price, the Almera is the better deal.

Dunno, reserve yourself a free test drive on both and see what you think. Nissan probably has the best sales and after sales service in Thailand and has a very nice package of road rescue and insurance for the first 3 years, also something to think about.

I really don't think that changing gear is such a big deal. I learnt on rhd vehicles, lived in a country with lhd for 40 years then moved here. I know where the gear lever is and I use it. What's the big deal guys, I'm 65 years old, if I can do it...

Sent from my GT-S7500 using Tapatalk 2

Well if we knew what kind of soil you have, whether you have water, want to sell or use at home... etc maybe we could advise. Try googling 'permaculture tropics' some good stuff in there.

Sent from my GT-S7500 using Tapatalk 2

The guys in my village make their own, need them for signalling deaths and also tomorrow.

Sent from my GT-S7500 using Tapatalk 2

Rubber shower mat, Homepro.

The question was whether or not rubber would save from an electric shock.

well that puts me in my place for trying to be helpful. Answer: no they won't as you will be wet through anyway, which you might have been able to work out for yourself.

Rubber shower mat, Homepro.

I never succeeded in signing up on a Thai website yet. They ask you stuff like 'customer number' when you aren't yet a customer, rant, rant

There are a few retirement homes for Farangs that I know of. One in particular for Swiss people in Buriram province seems to be running well, he asks for about ฿40 000.- a month I think, the Swiss guy has a Thai wife.

There is also

http://www.senline.net/index.php?page=511

and

People that suffer from Dementia and Alzheimer's would be a good bet, they would be better looked after here than in Europe and cheaper.

Sorry, another German link (use Google translate) to the home for dementia patients: http://www.alzheimerthailand.com/AlzheimerThailand/Index.htm

Why does everyone always advise international health insurance? You can find much cheaper options if you take out an insurance for Thailand only plus a medivac insurance, plus self insurance.

There are so many stories of people being refused payments because of 'pre-existing conditions' (these guys have a vivid imagination) or whatever. And as mentioned, even if you do have a lifetime's guarantee of coverage, premiums increase drastically with age.

http://www.thaihealth.co.th/company_eng.php

.

Stay green and "hedge it"

Regards.

I agree but a Bougainvillea hedge, the only viable option I think (impenetrable) takes up a lot of space. It also has to be pruned back more than once or twice a year and you have to leave space to be able to clean up on the neighbours' side.

Saying 'do your head in' annoys me (does my head in) , yes.

I occasionally draw out into an empty road and find myself on the wrong side. My wife seems to find this normal, she is Thai after all..

People will steal the steel posts.

then there are bolt cutterz for the wire....if they want it, they will come

Not if the posts are concreted in as they should be. Correctly rigged, wire will only be stealable in short lengths. Stay positive and do it!

Sent from my GT-S7500 using Tapatalk 2

Beats me why you have this problem.I get nothing but smiles and great service. I bought my car in april 2012 when people where waiting months to get delivery. My Nissan deal got mine to me in 9 days.I buy any big items they deliver them free and quickly.Local businessmen see me in a coffe shop or restaurant they stop in and say hello and then pay my bill. At the market the merchants always add a little extra to my order for free. I cannot say I experience anything like what you describe. I cannot help you because I cannot see how that could happen in Thailand.

I've lived/toured in every corner of this place...though obviously blinked and missed your little utopia...

Yes indeed, Nissan seem to have the best customer service of all car sellers in Thailand, I just bought one and was impressed. They are an exception.

Homepro, as mentioned above, is a prime example: I wish I could be manager of one of these places, I would tell the staff that at the end of the month half of them would lose their job and the other half would get double wages. And do it again a month later. I guess many posters in this topic don't often go into Homepro, I go there when I don't feel like running all over town looking for stuff that I know perfectly well is in their store, and further more, I know exactly where it is. Try buying chain oil for a chain saw , they will over and over insist on giving you 2 stroke oil for the motor, not an idea, no interest at all in their products. This is down to bad management, I know of only one store in the region that sends guys on courses to the manufacturers of the stuff they sell, Chinese guy owns it. Anyway, Thaiwatsadu staff now knows well enough to leave me alone since I did a wobbly when a guy insisted that they didn't have what I was looking for even when I had it in my hand.

Small shops: they tend to go to the same wholesale stores that I go to, so I know what they paid when I go into their store. Take it or leave it, I'm not driving 20 Km to save ฿100 on a pack of beer.

Shop assistants: my DIL got a job in a shop in which, the first and last time I went in there, the owner was asleep. The DIL let customers out of the shop without harassing them to buy anything and said Chinese lady threw a shoe at her. End of the month: ฿3000 instead of 6000. What do you expect when they are treated like this?

Some Chinese shops I go to because of the customer service (I meant to ordere 40 meters of hosepipe and he cut 14... no problem, he took it back) and some of them I avoid because of the unsmiling, unfriendly attitude I get (increasing the price for a fixed item every time I went).

There is even a Bangkok bank in Vientiane.

Even with two apparently identical bamboo plants side it is difficult to differentiate. When I was cultivating chinese bamboo years ago I used a magnifying glass quite often, and that only on the new shoots. Best is to wait until they flower (every 100 years or so) upon which they will die so not much point... try the international bamboo society.

I know that you 'shouldn't' bang nails into trees but in the tropics the trees, so habituated to insect attacks as they are, don't seem to mind, you see horrible examples of this lack of respect for trees all over Thailand. We have fence posts 15 years old along our boundary, they are beginning to look unsightly but they still do their job, a matter of which wood you use obviously. I am going for a 600 meter fencing job soon, we now have quite a few dogs to keep in as well as out (bipeds). Concrete posts 180 cm high, 180cm apart, concreted in to give a fence 145cm high. I hate barbed wire but I will probably be using that in strands, not tensioned tightly (apart from the lowest one so as to keep it away from the brush cutter) as that just makes it easier to climb over.

I have the option of doing this work in stages so I won't be spending all my money at once. Just as well as I have no idea what the posts will cost yet.

I must admit, because I receive very few replies on my Fish Farm / Shrimp-Prawn threads, I do wonder if,

... am I out of sync with what the Farming Forum wants?

.

David, I have read your prawn thread with interest but have nothing to add, There is no way I am going to start prawn farming and I know nothing about it. Same goes for many other threads. (rubber for instance).

Taking my own personal situation, I came to Thailand full of plans to show the backward Thais how to farm. Confronted with the realities of soil, climate, work ethic (not my own family) and downright dishonesty I quickly came to the conclusion that farming in my part of Isaan on the land that we have is out of the question for me. I guess that many people go through the same process.

This doesn't mean that farming as well as the political, social and ethical concerns that accompany it doesn't interest me.

I do agree that some of the threads that come in are a bit off forum topics, but many people expect farmers to know stuff about plants and animals.

PS: we will be buying a second hand rice harvester next year and taking rice as part payment for our services as we have storage space, exploiting the farmers is the only way to make money out of agriculture (only partly in jest).

Somebody mentioned going to Lao, an interesting proposition, I talked to a Vientiane taxi driver recently and he told us he gets 12 Baht a Kg for his rice, same as Isaan farmers are getting right now for Hom Mali. Small stuff like that can put a different perspective on things. From a practical point of view I would have to get a multi entry visa and I don't want to! Participation in one of the agricultural/horticultural exhibitions one of these days might be interesting, just a small stand and a few bilingual ladies... sorry I am rambling on a bit.

We had to wade through this. The place is near Suranee University, south of Nakhon:

https://maps.google.co.th/maps/ms?msid=209164140966709963776.0004c6691f7ffde6157af&msa=0&ll=14.874451,102.023849&spn=0.351727,0.441513

Just off the Mitrahap Road.

Day 1:according to my in house translation service: 8th of January, 'general public'

Day 2: 9 th Jan, 'Orchids'

on the 10th no info.

11th: Farmers' day plus 'Fancy Fish'. plus Sheep

11 - 12 dogs.

E &O.E.

We will be going, probably on days 8th and 9th.

This one:

Sent from my GT-S7500 using Tapatalk 2

Galaxy ace plus, cost about 8000 I think.

http://www.ceop.police.uk/Media-Centre/Press-releases/2012/A-child-goes-missing-in-the-UK-every-3-minutes/

which means that most get found again I guess. Setting up a website (I thought there already was one) in Thailand as well as an SMS service and facebook page might be one way of getting around police apathy.