cooked

Very interesting thanks, but a little surprised at the lack of comments as every other poster on here claims to 'love' the culture! ponglang and ramwong are relatively modern.

Most of what is touted as "traditional Thai culture" nowadays can be traced back to the 1930s or so.

It doesn't matter, the problem with trad. dance is that as soon as it has been codified and engraved on blocks of stone, it loses its internal dynamic. It is important to constantly renew the spirit of an individual dance from generation to generation. At the same time, where possible, we should maintain a concept of what the original dance was all about. Something that was originally performed on a rice threshing floor changes completely if danced in a temple ... I taught trad dance in Europe for 18 years and had plenty of time to think about what was happening in 'Bal Folk' and other 'Trad dance' movements.

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Thai visa home brew beer kits.

Beer kits that taste just like the beer back home.

Nothing wrong with home brew kits but you need 23°C ambient temperature for the initial brewing and if you have the time stocking it in a cool place foe a month or so is also desirable.

Obviously most of us yearn after food from back home, but anything that can't be stored without cooling is going to cause problems.

I spent three hours in Bankok trying to find a hait brush (not one of these horrible plastic things you use on horses back home). I imagine you can find everything in Bangkok but it usually sweaty trailing around shops being faced with galzed eyes shop assistants that are gathering breath to say 'Mai mi'. I always try to say it at the same time.

My ex wife recently sent me: a cheap coffee grinder (not the ฿3200.- Krupps thing you find here occasionally), a weather station, a couple of gardening tools, seeds, some Greyerzer cheese,

Can we start a sticky 'top quality topic of the week?'

Everyone's story is different....I suspect the worst are probably fabricated.

In my case, I did not build a house...my wife already had secured financing and bought a house before we ever met. She had it well over half paid off when we married; I paid off the balance.

I have told at least three family members "no" when asked to "loan" money. The only person I have helped is Maae, when the stupid younger sister gave a finance company the chanote to 8 rai for land to secure a 40,000 baht loan. I paid the loan with the condition that the chanote be transferred to my wife's name, and had papers drawn up to the effect that Maae and Paaw can live there free as long as necessary.

My wife has passed the word that I will not 'loan' money. She also knows that I am not going to let anyone (family) go hungry or have to sleep in the road. On more than one occasion she has also told me not to loan/give money if asked.

I also do not buy whisky when the sloppy drunk nephew asks for it.

Same here, sort of, rarely money... if they need stuff, and I think it's necessary, we go buy it together. Last year, irrigation stuff, next year maybe a rice harvester. We always buy a Kilo or so of chicken for them when we go to Macro.

Anybody can walk in here any time and eat, they know that, the family even lent me money when my credit card got eaten, I don't usually eat rats and frogs but we can always go over and partake. They asked for and got, a duck from us last week, things seem so simple and civilised in this family group (10 people at present, it varies) that I am so lucky to be at the head of. (I think).

Well good for you, we all wanted to know that. You dollop of shit.

My wife doesn't even know how many days there are in a year. Ask yours.

She is very intelligent and learns quickly, but was never taught. I agree that Thais know f* all about their history and furthermore that they don't want to know.

Mind you, my ex-wife (Swiss) got very upset when I told her that Napoleon walked into Switzerland and ruled the place for a few years (thank god).

Not knowing how many days there are in a year comes from the different perception of time here.

Thais tend to spend more time in the NOW and think in terms of seasons.

Well yes, that is what I was trying to explain, I feel myself getting that way myself, you may have missed my point.

I only get annoyed by people using 'BS' or 'Bullshit' as the all encompassing, all conquering, ultimate reply to what ever he doesn't agree with. I did write a BS post one time ( well maybe more than once) but this insulting put down really stops me answering posts.

Probably a charming American phrase that I don't really understand.

My wife doesn't even know how many days there are in a year. Ask yours.

She is very intelligent and learns quickly, but was never taught. I agree that Thais know f* all about their history and furthermore that they don't want to know.

Mind you, my ex-wife (Swiss) got very upset when I told her that Napoleon walked into Switzerland and ruled the place for a few years (thank god).

I once put four hitch hiking monks into the back of our pickup. 'Village so and so'. (about 50 Km I think). We got there and stopped. 'Ah, 1 Km up there', so off we go. after 6 Km we get there, and are asked for ฿200.- Each. They got ฿50.- each and I got a sour taste in my mouth. If I finish up living at a temple some day I'll look after the gardens as payment.

Before pontificating about the present political situation people should read up on recent Thai history. My wife didn't know about the Thamasat massacre or if she did it was 'a Bangkok thing'. It was a terrible thing that happened but you have to go back to 1932 or even further to understand how it came about. I sometimes read comments like 'for reasons II can't mention'. I guess I know what they mean.

I spend all my spare money buying amulets so that I can drive around drunk. If I spent money in the village it would be organising waste collection or a bus service. Or a communal rice harvester.

drinking beer reduces the risk of heart disease... drinking beer increases the risk of bowel cancer... or is it the other way around?

So who cares

Kind of reminds me of a study I did one time in a dialysis ward.

I recommend that nobody take dialysis because everyone there seemed to develop kidney problems.

And don't take aspirin, because I hear there's a strong link between taking aspirin and getting a headache. I also hear that very few people who shoot themselves die of heart disease.

Pretty much every example examined indicates a correlation between drinking in moderation, and a reduced incidence of certain diseases. Maybe healthy people are more likely to drink in moderation, and sick people are more likely to either drink too much, or not feel well enough to drink at all.

Maybe fine red wine is best because it's the drink of people who have enough money to also get decent health care. Maybe it appears better than beer because people don't eat deep fried pork rinds with fine red wine. Maybe drinking grape juice has the same benefits, or even more- but that's never been studied..

I'm seeing correlations, but not much cause and effect.

And what I'm also seeing is fodder for people with genuine drinking problems to tell everyone "here, see- I told you- it's okay, because it's proven to be good for you".

Edit: I forgot one of my favorite homegrown "studies": Seems that most Ferrari owners are wealthy. Does that mean I'll be more likely to get rich if I buy a Ferrari tomorrow? (BTW, the answer may surprise you- it surprised me)

Nobody is talking about 'fine' red wine. People in southern Europe drink their own farm made wine, because they can't afford beer (or don't like beer). Google red wine + health.

If you ever manage to talk to the old village guys (maybe in Lao or Cambodge) they will tell you about life 50 years ago. A moneyless society, much more of a community spirit, hunting for wild deer instead of frogs, food no problem everyone knowing everyone in the village. It wasn't a perfect society but it was stable, honest, hard working. It was around the time that the first young girls started coming back from Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket that they realised that they had no money, no TV, no fridge... no gold...

those times are gone, so people are now poor, which they weren't before when they never saw a Baht from one year to the next.

IN MY OPINION.. peasants work in fields and get tanned. Therefore if you are tanned you are a peasant. I can't quite work out why people that are very obviously peasants also try to keep the sun off, by masking themselves like highway men. Things have gone overboard and the idea of getting the skin complexion to the same tint as a Hi-So lady that never goes out of doors has been lost, many now seem to want to look like ghosts. Wearing a hat is also a symbol of being a peasant, so, no hats, laptops are for instance often used keep the sun off. My dark skinned wife looks very fetching with a hat, but there you are, it's not in fashion. Same thing in Cambodia.

Don't forget that the same thing happened in Europe a hundred years or so ago, ladies had their parasols as an accessory, tanning was for peasants until it became an indication that someone had been in sunny climes in winter, very expensive when I was a kid.

Do not even consider growing rice on your land. It is a technique the elite uses to keep people poor. It is one of the lowest profit per rai crops on the planet. Consider exotic fruit, herbs, or anything other than rice. It will keep you poor. It is grown out of habit, and the profit margin is horrendous.

Most of the land around here is land that will only support rice cultivation. Fish ponds are the only alternative, and then you have to practically sleep out there every night to prevent theft.

However we are thinking about bamboo for bamboo shoots next year, we will start on a small scale.

I will be nagging my SIL to plant some kind of nitrogen producing crop in the Spring time, not sure if I will succeed.

Boiling water does a fair job

I have the E CVT model without ABS. I have driven in it in all sorts of situations and never felt a twinge of a suspicion that I was going to slide. Mind you I do drive at a speed respecting ambient conditions. I also drive very gently, no maximum accelerations or braking, never over 95K/h when doing the daily school run (country roads, highway, town) and have never got 20Km/L, persistently on 18.3 since the beginning.

Very happy with this car after 40 years or driving trucks.

What's up the finger printing? I never had to do anything like that at any time in Thailand and certainly not for my 5 year license..

He was giving me value for money. I do know that there is a little observed regulation that non-Thais should announce their presence at the nearest police station (as well as immigration).

At present I am just shrugging and thinking 'Amazing Thailand'.

That's what I thought, I will run away..

I went to the police station this morning to get confirmation of my address for a 5 year driving license. Ok, we were really early (about 08.30) and had to wait about an hour until the guy turned up, we were treated well in this time.

The guy took a long time in getting my confirmation ready, at the end of all the stuff he was doing he took a foto of me from my wife's wallet, stuck it onto a form and took my finger prints! All ten .. I then signed a lot of stuff as did my wife. ....so I was being put on a file somewhere. He then charged us ฿1000.-, but had to accept the ฿800.- which was all we had (forgot to go to the bank).

What the hell did I do? I don't disagree or dispute things with police officers generally, so I went through with it.

He invited himself to our house for a beer and told us he could get me a lifetime visa extension (no more three monthly reports or applications for extensions) for a 'consideration'. Duuhh... did I get mugged, or am I about to be? Seemed like a nice guy, for a policeman.

If you can't do it by hand then only Glyphosat will work, or putting horrible black plastic on top for a few weeks. I shouldn't be too delicate about using a weed killer just once.