sezzo

I have been living on and off in Khemarat for 15 years and still maintain a house there. I was there last in June. There are no metre taxis there at all.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

Or if he has good internet connection, he can get a 12 month streaming package from AFL.com.au and watch all games live via internet. Last I heard it was about $120 per year. I know of a few expats watching AFL this way

Hello All,

I broached this subject about 8 or so years ago about the possibility of getting a solar powered set up for my house on the farm in Ubon Ratchathani. The house is being powered by a meter about 700m away at a family members house. This situation will not be changing in the near future as the PEA as no intention of running cabling and posts down our road. There is a degree of power loss due to this situation. We are back in Australia for the next few years and am planning to do some improvements to the house for when we return. One thing I would like is to have A/C in the bedroom and I believe the current power situation would not be suitable for A/C.

I am looking at getting panels and a battery bank set up to run the A/C and possibly other electrical requirements of the property. Does anyone know if solar power has advanced in Thailand to the stage that it is being used in the more remote areas for the usage that I require.

Any advice would be appreciated

When I went for walks in Ubon city or up at the farm I always carried a 1.5m thin bamboo stick. Just a light tap on the nose sends the dogs scurrying away. If not a hard swipe at the head solves the problem. None ever came back for seconds

Hi Carl. We go back to Ubon 2 November for a few days then back to Australia till 2nd week January. On our return we will be in Ubon for keeps. Can't keep away from the place. We have sold our business here in Prachuap. Catch up with you some day mate. Cheers.

Good on you, mate. Hopefully I will be back over for a holiday sometime next year. All the best

Are you back in Ubon now, John

Not sure about the one in the photo but all in our family at the farm have been bitten by the browny/black scorpions a few times. It stings for about 24 - 30 hours but no problems after that. They are about 40 - 50 mm long. Not sure about the bigger, black ones that you find under water tanks, logs etc

There is a shop in the main road opposite the entrance to the Tokyo hotel. Its where the main road narrows considerably. These guys sell mowers and other small engine machinery. The owners speak quite good English and Im sure they could get parts for you. I have bought and had stuff repaired done there before but not for mowers.

I would have thought it would be a godsend if the supply of Leo was disrupted. Terrible taste. Chang or Tiger for me any day

My wife asked a similar question about the grandkids when she was at the Thai embassy last month. Apparently it is not a difficult thing to do, mind we were enquiring about 1 and 2 year old. Google Thai embassy Canberra and their website has all the phone numbers. The info on the website is in both thai and English. I have had a few dealings with this embassy and always have been treated well.

I did see a cardiologist in Ubon for about a year or so. He has a clinic close by to the Sapasit Hospital. He speaks quite good English. Problem being is that you have to line up with all the hordes of people waiting to see him. His clinic is located on the road that crosses Sapasit road in between the hospital and the police HQ. So if you are heading along Sapasit Rd back to Ubon centre you turn left at the first traffic lights. His clinic is about 50 m on the right and has a large glass entrance to it.

Hope this helps

I have used the Silver Star pool many times. Nice sized and clean pool. I managed to go there during the school day when it was quiet which was ideal for me. From memory it was about 50 baht per visit to use.

Sounds great!

Where is it, by the way?

Thank you

Im not too good with road names but here we go. If you go along the main road out of town past Big C, cross over the intersection with the ring road. This is now the road to Amnat Charoen. You go about 1 kms of so and then you will see the Nissan dealership is on the right. Continue on for another 500 m and there is a market on the left. Just past the market is a small soi to the left and it is about 100 m up on the right. You will see an open car park with also undercover parking for about 3 cars. As you turn left off the Amnat road there is a Krungthai bank opposite.

Hope you can follow my directions

I have used the Silver Star pool many times. Nice sized and clean pool. I managed to go there during the school day when it was quiet which was ideal for me. From memory it was about 50 baht per visit to use.

Topdeck,

I have sent you a PM

Enjoy guys. One day I will get down to Tronds place for this particular Hash. If we are back in Ubon next Xmas holidays will try and get there

our local mom & pop store here in Udon Thani has a great deal on Beer Chang Classic (much better than Leo IMO)

2 Bottles + Ice THB100.

Seeing Tops and Big C near us are now THB 50 per bottle - that's a pretty good deal!

My sentiments exactly

Entschuldigung!

Thank goodness for Google Translate

Steve, its Carl with a C mate. Don't want to sound too german please.

Enjoy the hash, wish I could join in

Why this big hang up about learning English at these Ubon schools? I wouldn't even worry about English. if one of the parents is a native English speaker learn at home, read English books and watch English movies. The whole English programme is a farce in most schools. Send your children there to learn Thai, incorrect right-wing history, some science and some math. Forget the English programs. Just go through the Thai program.

I think the emphasis on English stems from a need for Thailand to boost its English levels prior to ASEAN coming into effect. Apparently Thailand is way behind the eight ball in relation to their competency of English language. Having said that employing teachers from non English speaking countries who aren't trained specifically in English to teach English in schools doesn't work.

Certainly sounds like I did the right thing taking my son back to school in Australia. I actually was debating whether to change schools in Ubon but they all seem to be of a similar standard. Good to hear some input from others in the same situation that I was. Good luck

Ok I will go first. I sent my son to the YES school in Ubon for 2 years. The reason we chose this school was that the English Program (EP) syllabus was 50 percent taught in English and 50 percent taught in Thai. My son had 4 years at an Australian primary school and his English was great but he only spoke Issan and couldn't read or write thai. In the first year the teachers were very helpful and he quickly gained a good grasp of thai, both written and oral. It all started going down hill after that.

As my son could read, write and speak English quite well he was continually roped in to participate in English speech competitions with other school in Ubon. He always placed quite high in these competitions. The school quickly took claim for teaching him good English. It got to the stage that he was often missing his own lessons so he could represent the school in these competitions. He was placed there to learn written thai and there he was being paraded as their English speaking wonder boy. Wifey wouldn't let me go into the office to vent my frustrations.

Enough of that rant. He was in a class of 6 or 7 kids. It seemed in the last year he was there that the teachers were always being used for other tasks apart from teaching. So the kids were often left alone in the classroom for the teaching period then given homework to be done at home. Most days he was getting about 2 or 3 hours of homework but was sitting around most of the day doing nothing during the school periods.

The school are supposed to have native English speaking teachers to teach the English program lessons. There were a few native English speakers but the others came from all over the place like phillipines, Germany, India, Ghana, France etc. It was ok for my son as he could already speak English well. The other students would have had major problems with the varying accents.

I chose this school as opposed to the religious based schools as I didn't want him to be brainwashed with Christianity like the religious schools in Australia. We removed him from this school and he is now back in Australia getting a far better standard of education. For the high school fees that we were paying I expected more that what we got. The facilities there looked good, the uniform is nice but there was no substance in their level of education for my liking.

I have a friend of mine in Ubon who was diagnosed as a celiac about 6 years ago. He refrained from drinking beer since then. He has just discovered that drinking 3 or 4 longnecks each day of either Leo, Singha, Chang Classic, San Miquel or Ashasi doesn't irritate his condition. He believes this is due to them being rice based beers.

If you do a search on this forum for Drivers Licence in Ubon there is a couple of threads. I did mine about 2 years ago and it has changed since then. The letter from the immigration has now been changed to a letter from the tourist police I believe. Do a search and all the info is there.

Hope this helps