cooked

kind of late to get into this old thread.

I had hardly been in Thailand for three weeks before I got two shopping tee shirts printed (440 Baht) 'I don't like plastic'. (My mastery of Thai is minimal) Thais working in stores that can read find this amusing and generally understand when I give them a flash. I'm sure we could think up a better slogan, looks like a commercial opportunity to me, any feedback here?

I place all my trash in boxes and gift wrap them. Then I drive to the Makro store in Udorn and leave them in the back seat with the doors unlocked.

When I return from shopping, all the boxes have miraculously disappeared.

as we have a pickup I guess we would have it even easier. However the problem is still there, just not in your backyard.

In our village (near Buriram) we have a problem with plastic, floating around everywhere, being burnt across the road from the clinic. If I buy ice creams for the local kids they just dump the packing where ever they are standing. I once spent an hour or two cleaning stuff in front of our house, a day later it looked the same. I may pay somebody to clean up but it's a losing battle...

I got Tshirts printed 'I don^t like plastic' in reference to the fact that you can't buy anything without being stuck into a plastic bag even if it is already in a plastic bag, if you have two items they will be put into a third plastic bag... people are paid to do this..

sorry

why they want 400k in bank

every couples can live good with 15k/month in many cities in thailand

Not true. Your dreaming!

Correct. He is dreaming.

to rent a small 1 room apartment/condo in BKK will cost minimum 10000 Bath / month.

Medical insurance about 6000 Bath/month. etc

I the country you can.....

But no jobs in the country for farang (except teaching):-(

slightly off topic but I'll get into it. I don't want to live on 15 000 a month but i could. You are dreaming if you think that Bangkok prices apply everywhere in Thailand. Nice house, A/C, small garden, 2 bedrooms: 3500.- (Buriram), can't do much about health insurance but that still leaves a tight budget of 11 000. As I say, I wouldn't want to do that, but I do understand Thais that get upset when they see Farnags saying they need 130 000 a month to live (in Bangkok, not in Thailand, in Bangkok!). My wife has her own house, we have fruit, vegetables, fish, chickens (and rat for anyone that is interested), she was living on 30 000. A year. ... before I turned up.

Could have been worse in Delaware

Sent from Android please excuse errors in type or judgement

Where can I buy one, want!

my perverted instincts tell me that if they tried this in England, people would be fighting to get up there on the table.

A pedant is a person who is excessively concerned with formalism and precision, or who makes a show of his or her learning.

rijb thank you for your positive and informative comment. I just wikipedied 'cofee health' . I get:

Reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease and Dementia

Reduced risk of gallstone disease

Reduced risk of Parkinson's disease

Cognitive performance

Analgesic property

Antidiabetic

Liver protection

Cancer

Cardioprotective

and a few more, There are a few negative effects mentioned but on the whole it looks like a good deal. So of course you will say that this is based on research sponsored by coffee chains?

Sleep gives you cancer, everybody knows that....

These char ovens/gasifiers. Can they be set up to burn the gas that they are producing? Do they produce enough to become self sustaining?

That is the whole idea. The thermal efficiency can vary quite markedly depending on design and use.

more information please, never heard of these ovens

maybe Chops and Wanna should do a swap.

well sometimes it's no fun at all driving in Thailand. I have been taken for a drive by different Thais at different times and they drive like you and me. The difference is that they don't start clenching the steering wheel in frustration when they get into the above described situations. When I asked why some people drive like they do, I got the reply 'oh, they just lazy'. When you think about it this goes to the root of what happens on the road all the time.

I have rarely been so up tight as I was when drove through Koirat one morning at a time when all the kids were going to school. How I got through that without killing someone I don't know, next time I'll take another route. I don't think that a Thai would be fazed by this at all, they just drive.

I haven't been back to UK for years now, but the descripion of driving habits I read here is very very far away from what it was when I was driving there 30 years ago

now if I could find a buffalo cart in good condition....

whatever goes wrong, you can hopefully learn something. I had been thinking about it, but on reading this post I have definitely decided:

1. Joint account ok, I put in about 10 000 Baht a month for general shopping.

2. Another 20 000 a month into my Bangkok Bank personal account.

3. The rest stays in Switzerland as far as possible, earning interest and profiting from the strong positon of the Swiss Franc. My credit card can get cash from there any time.

You can live with someone for love, getting married is about money, so this is one of the things you have to think about. I'll think about a making a will sometime.

Your all talking about the heart, what about CANCER $$$$$$$$$$, organ transplant $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$?

yes and there are other diseases like Alzheimer, diabetes... as I stated above, I have an emergency way out - I have the luxury of deciding to die back in a nice clean, sterile and unfriendly hospital in Switzerland (medivac insurance, 1200 Baht a year) rather than having my wife help me on my way out in our own home. If you can't do something like this, you need a big emergency fund. It's all very well being able to pay for treatment for an urgent situation, but after a certain age you have to reckon with having a second and third occurrence or a chronic illness developing, rapidly eroding your funds.

Self insurance is indeed the way to go I think, but you are making a wager with fate. It's all very well saying, when you are healthy (and an optimist), well ok so I die at home, but when the time comes, you may well find yourself desperately looking for a way out.

I'm also genuinely curious what these gems may mean:

> a truly cheese deal there....

> the day i saw a muffin being travestite as a "mini Panettone"

That's ok, i will further elaborates....

"cheese" should have been "cheesy"

and

"the muffin being travestite as a mini panettone" was referred to a cake currently being sold at the Tesco's bakeries, where you can find a muffin wrapped up with a particular kind of paper used for a Christmas cake called "Panettone", and if you look closer at it you will see that they actually printed up the words "panettone" on it too.

To make a comparison, let's say one day you find a marshmallow on the shelf, wrapped up with the "rock candy" package and words, or a Lao-Khao with the label of a Jack Daniel..... hope it is clear now

yeah, I write posts when I'm drunk too.

I saw 300 baht Hamburgers in Kanchanaburi too, the place was about half full, mostly Thais... explain? We had a Thai meal outside for about 300 for two.

absolutely, where wood has been burnt, most crops grow better, this is at the root of the slash and burn farming method, used in Europe up until the middle ages. I still have to be convinced that burnt rice husks improve soil quality in the long run though. I promise to try it and let you know.

Put money in the bank and hope you dont need to use it, better you keep it than give it some folks who may not do what you think they will and you wont get your money back either! Your money in your bank, not used you leave the money to whoever you choose.

I have looked at many schemes without exception they are expensive, to my mind, they go up every year and no guarantees you will get what you expect or a renewal when you look a bad bet.

to be fair, Nordic, the most expensive I have found up to date, does seem to be ok in this regard. However: 16 000 a month? Plus first $1500 expenses a year you pay yourself?...

Regarding the carbonised seeds, biochar is not supposed to break down, it's a soil conditioner rather than a fertilizer. the idea is that it stimulates micro biological activity.

yes I understand that, thanks. I was, in my usual rambling way, trying to suggest that if the soil conditions do improve due to the use of biochar, then they will indeed break down biologically, The best solution is sand, believe me

In my view, if you can't afford health insurance, you shouldn't consider living here, if you are from UK. There are many types of illness or accident damage that could result in extensive treatment, and you may not be able to travel (back to UK for the free healthcare).

And being so irresponsible as to smugly report that a saving has been made by not having insurance is frankly ridiculous. Citing open heart surgery as potentially being the most expensive treatment is laughable. You could be very badly damaged being hit by a car/bus/tuk-tuk/motorbike or even being badly beaten during a robbery. If you are unable to travel to UK for treatment, and you run out of money, who do you think is going to help you.

Can't afford insurance? You can't afford to live in Thailand.

It is not necessarily a matter of being able to afford the insurance (I got a quote from Nordic at around 15 000 Baht month, by the way), but the fact that older people are paying for peace of mind. I don't feel any confidence at all in companies that can at any time: exclude you from further treatment for a chronic illness you may have, exclude you at any time they feel like it, double your premiums when they feel like it. You'll find stuff like this in the small print, alluded to in an indirect way in most policies if you look. I have a repatriation insurance, so that when the time comes that I can no longer pay my bills, i can get medivaced (back to Switzerland) where I receive treatment as a Swiss citizen. Going along with self insurance most probably also.

As the subject is 'Burnt Rice Hulls - good or bad as a soil conditioner' I'll plunge in . My ex-girlfriend was an archaeologist and specialised in studying soil sediments from prehistoric sites. In clay sediments under a microscope she was able to identify carbonised seeds that were over 2000 years old. So not much point in hoping that mixing this in will be much use in bettering clay soil. The soil in Isaan is very clay, a problem that I have here in Switzerland occasionally. (I am a landscape gardener heading rapidly towards retirement). Having realised that the toilet cleaner that I had bought contains hydrochloric acid, I poured a few drops here and there onto the baked solid soil in what is to become our vegetable garden. A lovely reaction, bubbling and frothing away, so the soil is alkaline, very much so.

Next step: the building sand, using the same test, didn't react at all, so this is probably from a river somewhere and is acidic. No harm in adding this to the soil at all, in fact it works miracles. Just don't add alkaline sand, this is the stuff that kids hate as it also bakes solid in a short time and has to be dug into again and again and won't help at all.. You have, from a gardener's point of view two opposites; very heavy clay soil and very light sandy soil. Get the mixture right and organic stuff like rice husks, cow manure will be able to rot and release the nutrients into the soil. 1 -2 centimeters on top will do it, sometimes just weeding will be enough to work the sand into the soil. Wood ash is also ok, but makes the soil heavier.

The main use as far as I am concerned, of rice husks, is in keeping weeds down and keeping the soil moist in spreading a few centimeters of it around trees and shrubs

maybe this has been discussed on this thread, but There are 7 pages and counting: According to Thai visa, "In addition to the permanent residence book, an alien registration book will be issued, which is the equivalent of the ID card held by Thais."

Very important: does this mean that you are then able to receive medical treatment at are Thais upon presentation of their ID cards? (Gold card is being phased out)? Not having to pay medical insurance privately would surely be a very big advantage.

Anybody know about this?

dont you see they call it ALIEN book which means you are still an alien .

Ok, you are right, so the phrase 'equivalent of the ID card held by Thais' is another example of inexact or misleading translations.

Picture night time in a remote village in Isaan: you can put up with the gently whirring background noise of the fan, the train hooting when it comes through at 4 o'clock in the morning, which wakes up the dogs of course. An hour later, at the most, cockerels start, how romantic. 6 o'clock: for some reason the village head decides to make an announcement , so you get 10 minutes of 'music' then an announcement so garbled by the bad sound system that even my wife can't understand it (kids have a sports day or something like that). I can PUT UP WITH THAT, somehow it is a part of village life. But what's this exotic delight? yes, a speaker van just what I needed.

I used to meditate in the mornings, not since I got here. I also intend to die here. I can just imagine some poor sod that has had a bad night at last drifting off to sleep, maybe never to wake again, being jolted into a discomforted state of alertness, or in my case something akin to hate I should think, not cool.

Several thoughts come to mind: mounting loudspeakers down on the road and blasting the misguided sod making the noise out of his seat with the most unpleasant noise known to man, feedback. I have to not only look at insulating the house against heat but also against noise.

I can't insulate it against stupidity, I think the Thais think that it is modern and therefore 'cool'. Never lose face by showing that maybe you don't like modern stuff. You have to live in a village to understand this mentality,

I think you can do something about it in a village, same as I can do something about the ugly, mad, nymphomaniac, drunk old bitch next door that was poisoning dogs. It involves distributing money in the right places and being ready for violence or threats.

Can't do that in a town of course.

I am quite a happy person usually!

so sex DOES have something to do with love, I knew it. 'We can stay friends, can't we?" no longer holds water. Scientific proof I tell you, we'll put women in their place yet, drool, rant

wow, 51 pages!

maybe this has been discussed on this thread, but There are 7 pages and counting: According to Thai visa, "In addition to the permanent residence book, an alien registration book will be issued, which is the equivalent of the ID card held by Thais."

Very important: does this mean that you are then able to receive medical treatment at are Thais upon presentation of their ID cards? (Gold card is being phased out)? Not having to pay medical insurance privately would surely be a very big advantage.

Anybody know about this?