pab

Some interesting and honest responses.

We moved to our very small village about 4 years ago. I am the only farang here and like so many others had to face the cultural shock of a changing from a city lifestyle to living in an isolated, small rural community. Like many others the early morning "broadcast" (5am in our village) was a bit hard to take but surprisingly many in the village complained to the phu yai ban and in recent months they have either significantly reduced the volume or my hearing has been shot to bits.

The issue of handling the cultural issue of everyone walking thro our home and checking out what ever you may have bought that day - even the grocery bags - was a pain in the arse not just to me but also my wife who is a Thai national. She really wanted some private space and I let her organise the best way to achieve this without creating a big problem with family and friends. Her solution was amazingly simple. We purchased 2 pups who have now grown into 60+ kilogram "security guards". They are great family dogs, extremely territorial and have really put the wind up people. Interestingly they never make a problem for my wife's parents unless her dad has been on the booze - then they just stop him at the front gate and refuse to let him in.

The real issue for me is that I miss the opportunity to be able to fully communicate with friends and neighbours as although my Thai is adequate, the village people either speak Isaan or Kemer. They understand Thai but do not speak Thai - not just with me but with anyone. I now know enough Isaan to ask most of the basic questions but thats a far cry from having a meaningful conversation. Thank god I have some farang mates in villages not so far away and as well my wife speaks excellent Thai and English as well as Isaan.

I know this point has been made by others on this thread but I thought it was worth repeating - for me the importance of having a partner that you can share all with certainly helps overcome my shortfall in village communication skills.

We both lead busy lives with two teenage daughters, running a reasonably sized rice farm, setting up a village cooperative and website business to sell our village's Thai silks that we profit share with the village - and having the chance to easily catch up with some other aussies and a few other farangs results in me having a mostly enjoyable village life.

I have been retired and lived happily in Thailand for the last 5 years.

However, just recently I was asked quite seriously, what I thought the biggest problem was in making Thailand my home.

After some serious thought and a few more whiskies, I finally came up with the issue of language and communication - have worked hard on this but it's still a challenge to me.

I would be interested in the thoughts of others on our forum re the major problems/hurdles they face in deciding to retire here in Thailand

I know hindsight is 20/20, but the answer to the problem is to avoid living in an Isaan villiage near your wives family and extended family If this kind of behaviour (folks coming into the house all day) is not appreciated . If you like the lifestyle, then fine. Live with it.

I live in Issan. My gfs parents are from Bangkok. We live here out of chioce, and the only time we have unexpected guests (once in a blue moon) they are appreciated, as they are close friends and usually bring gifts.

You shouldn't have to buy 7 dogs and electronic gates to have a bit of privicy. If you speak Thai tell the visitors that you would appreciate a phone call before they come over.. If you don't speak Thai then tell the Mrs you don't want people coming through the house all day and night. If the people keep coming through the house then think long and hard about your relationship and where her interests lie.

As the guy who posted with the remote control gate and a couple of dogs please also understand that we have a great relationship with the people in our village and go out of our way to work with them, help them and to make sure we are not perceived as wanting to isolate ourselves off from village life. In fact, we have erected a bamboo hut just outside our front gate that is a very popular meeting place and safe from our dogs. However, with the 2 large dogs, being the only farang in our village and with my wife's aunties and uncles being such a bloody nosey lot (even wanting to open every bag on our return from a shopping trip to Tesco), we just wanted some "space" for us and our 2 daughters. We love living here and have many happy and enjoyable times and much prefer this way of life to our previous Bangkok condo lifestyle - so this issue is a very minor one and in no way detracts from having a great life in an Isaan village.

I have been staying in Isaan during Christmas and New Year and it has been

fascinating to watch the lifestyles of the country people in Thailand.

I don’t know if what I have seen is representative of N.E. Thailand as a whole but

I don’t believe Thai’s in this part of the country have any concept of the word

“ privacy ”- at least during daylight hours because all manners of people seem to

just wander into the home without any announcement.

It just seems to be a never ending stream of people.

You can be in a room alone when someone just wanders in looking to borrow

something or wanting some information.

I found it a bit overwhelming because I enjoy my private time.

I am curious to know if the many farangs that live in this part of Thailand experience

this and if it took them a long time to get used to this style of living?

My wife also likes her privacy and like one of the other posters we have made it very clear that upstairs is out of bounds to all.

However, just recently we also installed a remote controlled front gate system which along with 2 very fast growing rottie/german shepherd cross dogs, has seemed to have completely eradicated the problem even from the downstairs area.

Fake banknotes flood city as recession grips

Warning to be alert over festive period

BANGKOK: -- Thousands of counterfeit banknotes, particularly 1,000-baht bills, are likely to go into circulation over the New Year period, the Bank of Thailand (BoT) warned yesterday.

Nopporn Pramojaney, the BoT's assistant governor for note-printing, warned consumers and businesses to watch out for odd-looking notes during the holiday season.

He said counterfeit notes in circulation increased by 80% this year, possibly as a consequence of hard economic times.

In the 12 months to the end of November, the BoT had confiscated 18,895 fake notes - compared with 10,819 notes seized in the same period last year. Most fake notes were 1,000-baht bills, which accounted for 61% of seized notes.

Mr Nopporn said that for every one million banknotes in circulation, up to 7,000 of those would be fakes.

More counterfeit notes were expected to enter circulation next year due to the economic recession.

Pol Lt-Gen Danaithorn Wongthai, chief of the Office of Police Forensic Science has given some tips for the public to differentiate real banknotes from fake ones.

A real banknote bears the watermark of His Majesty the King, which can only be seen when it is held up to the light. The picture of the King, the letters and the digits showing the value on the real note have an embossed feel.

Notes of 1,000-baht, 500-baht and 100-baht value have reflective and holographic metallic strips.

Police Region 1 recently arrested four people including a former school director, for banknote forgery, and seized 203 fake 1,000-baht notes.

Police also confiscated three compressed bricks of marijuana weighing 3kg from the suspects.

Pol Lt-Gen Chalong Sonjai, Police Region 1 commissioner, said the suspects used the fake notes to pay for drugs they bought in Laos.

In Phuket, police arrested three people and seized three fake 1,000-baht notes in Thalang district on Wednesday.

Pol Col Thammanoon Faiju, superintendent of Thalang police station, said forged bills were often used at nightspots, petrol stations or grocery stores popular with the elderly.

-- Bangkok Post 2008-12-20

Not just Bangkok. Yesterday some guys came to our village about 18 km from Si Sa Ket to buy some of our rice harvest and in paying us, thanks to my wife's sharp eyes, we noticed a few fake 1,000 baht notes.

The guy was a little shocked but he replaced them immediately without question and I think he was not even aware they were fakes.

Sure taught me a lesson and now I check all my change, even withdrawals from the bank, before moving on.

Forget the above. 24 hours after downloading the ticker magically appeared !!!

I just recently changed from Windows Explorer to Firefox and wanted to maintain my Thaivisa toolbar utility.

However, after successfully downloading I find that I cannot access the "news ticker"that I find invaluable.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

i am staying in Isaan at the moment - the trouble is here where I am they

will not even listen to him on the tv. Theyhate him and when he comes on the tv

they change channels and hiss at him

I think he portrays a far more positive image of Thailand than say the TV chef

- but they are not worried about that here in the N East

Your comment was definitely not replicated in my village where I live, not come and stay.

The large majority of the people here have never voted for the Democrats even though they also have previously provided the usual incentives.

However, at our village meeting last night it was overwhelmingly obvious that everyone was hoping that the new PM could at least start some sort of reconciliation process and they are prepared to at least give him a chance. There was some doubt that he could achieve the stated aims in his speech but they are prepared to wait and see. Not all in Isaan are completely ignorant as suggested by many others.

Thai Fever (or Thailand Fever) is supposed to be written so that the Thai female understands the Western male and vice versa. Never read it so no idea how successful it is.

Hi I have that book and its very very good. It covers many topics and is written with each individual page in both English and Thai. Thus making it good to read& understand together. The only place Iv seen it sold in LOS is at the Airport. Please bear in mind it also cover subjects like Bar Girls and prostitution.

Fully Recommended

Dave

By far the best...

Very useful book and very applicable to all Thai. Actually google and check out the website for this book so you can get a better idea of what it covers. www.thailandfever.com Good luck mate

Posted Christmas cards to friends and family in Australia the DAY BEFORE the airport closures. These were successfully delivered yesterday. However, still waiting for a registered package from Australia posted nearly a week before the airport closures. Maybe outgoing mail is being cleared more quickly than incoming articles/mail.

Can you really be bothered with such stuck up behavior ?

My in laws hated me even went as far as calling the police when i used to visit.I wasn't good enough ,not rich enough ,etc etc.

Basically I thought <deleted> them and carried on as it was and is there daughter I love and not them.

I have now been married 12years and my in laws have accepted me, and surprisingly we are now close even go on the occasional holiday together.

They have stated since that they respect me standing my ground and being true to myself, I didn't have to change who I was and do not have to pretend I am something im not.

If you start your life with this family as pretense and buls**T your marriage will turn out the same. If your GF cant stand by you game over before it starts.

Just my humble opinion.

I think you have hit the nail on the head.

The Thai apologists and botty benders seem to think that it's all about understanding Thai culture and for some reason going totally native, well in a mixed relationship there has to be a set of compromise between the two cultures, in the end you can't be something you are not, and one thing for sure is, that you'll never be Thai and they will never be Farang.

It's not about understanding, it's about respect for one another. I don't think I could respect anyone, who changed totally just so that I would accept them, I'd think they were a weak minded prat.

Totally agree. The name of the game is RESPECT and no amount of bullshit and pretence will ever replace this essential element of any relationship. However, from reading all your comments I am now starting to wonder if you are still serious about this GF and your propensity to adopt/adapt to whatever is necessary or have you decided that its just not worth the bloody effort any more?

Thanks George and well done to Sebastian and his staff at Isaan Lawyers. The update and broad based discussion by TV members was greatly appreciated

My father in law is a rice farmer in Surin providence. Up until last year he has always hired workers to come and manually cut his rice. Last year he used one of the rice harvesters mentioned. I don't know the exact cost but asking my wife she seems to remember that it was something like 500 baht per rai to have the harvester cut the rice. As mentioned the harvester is quicker than manual labor. But two downfalls to the harvester. The first is that you have to have it scheduled where as mentioned most rice farmers tend to cut rice around the same time so if the harvester is booked up you would have to rely on manual labor. Secondly, which happened to my father in law, there was about 10 rai of his rice that needed cut but the owner of the harvester refused to cut it. The reason was there was standing water and much mud within those paddies and the harvester owner was concerned with getting stuck.

We have 20 rai and for the first time this year we used a harvester as my wife's uncle purchased one a few months ago. We actually paid 600 baht/rai to the uncle but they did a great job and very fast compared to the usual manual harvesting approach. Similiar to dingdongrb we also had a few rai with standing water but the machine negotiated 90% of this leaving only about 1 rai for manual cutting. Its interesting to note that with this development, more than 80% of the rice harvest around our village was done by machine this year and most of this by my wife's uncle who is not just a good bloke but also a respected, hard but very fair businessman. Good luck to him. Now we are just waiting for the price to improve before selling.

Not sure if you saw it, but it was a very unusual sight and there were plenty of people taking photos with their phone cameras. If anyone got a shot that they don't mind sharing, can you post it?

TIA

Agree it was very unusual. We tried to take photos but none really came out properly. Hopefully there are others more competent with a camera then me.

When I used to work at a Truck Stop decades ago we used a powered orange/yellow soap that removed oil and diesel fuel easily off the concrete. I don't recall what the name of the soap was and looked online without any success. Although while working at the Truck Stop we cleaned the driveways a few times a week so the stains did not have a chance to soak in. I am sure that LOS probably does not have such a soap but you might find it useful just to ask at some of the higher end service stations on what they might use.

Likewise when I was searching the Internet I came across this website that may be of some use to you. Good luck and let me know your results.

http://www.askthebuilder.com/368_Cleaning_...Oil_Spots.shtml

Thanks dingdongrb and teacup - will also give this a shot once we have finished the rice harvest. Greatly appreciated

what kinda surface ?

have photo ?

if it rough , just use a bronze brush on it. and buy some cement mix it with water and brush over it .

like a whilte wash buy using cement itself .

, if it smooth , same thing use a bronze brush ,

the trick to to make sur ethe paint is dry already . you may want to use a hair dryer to make it extra dry .

.

Thanks Ta22. Surface is smooth and its a water based paint. Also have just been informed by a mate that perhaps metholated spirits could also help.

Will give your suggestion a go and see what happens.

Have looked around but failed to find something that will remove paint (and other stains) from cement. Tried an Australian product called CLR but to no avail. Any ideas or suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks

Anybody have experience or can give advice about growing vegetables in the North East?

I was thinking spuds, onions and cabbages alongside usual local varieties.

Anybody want to give it a try?

Have never done anything like this but we have land and are serious about having food even after collapse of world financial markets

We have grown tomatoes, onions, chilli, lettuce, cabbages and sundry herbs in Si Sa Ket with great success. Tried to grow spuds but it was a complete failure.

Veggie garden now is a bit destiute....many excuses but probably getting lazy in my old age so better pick up my game..

I know a girl that told her boyfriend school fees for her child were 18,000 Baht.....was only 6,800 and kept the rest for herself..

Thanks for your valuable input. If you had read fully the previous posts on this topic then it would be obvious that your scenario was completely invalid. Sorry you were conned out of 11,200 baht

I have read this topic fully and I have lived here for years and let me assure that when there is a westerner involved, this scam will be pulled much more than the school scamming for money. If anything, they will both happen.

Thais do it to guys all the time and even to each other.

Wasnt me but someone I know. Thought it may be relevant, sorry you thought it was invalid to your post.

Apologies for my over-reaction mate. Its just that despite all the years I have lived here as well, I still find it difficult to swallow scamming even though its sadly an integral part of life here.

Surely this "head in the sand" attitude cannot persist much longer !!! Some of Mrs. Tarisa's statements are absolutely laughable let alone ignorant of the current world economic crisis situation and the impact on Thailand.

I know a girl that told her boyfriend school fees for her child were 18,000 Baht.....was only 6,800 and kept the rest for herself..

Thanks for your valuable input. If you had read fully the previous posts on this topic then it would be obvious that your scenario was completely invalid. Sorry you were conned out of 11,200 baht

Thanks to all above for your help. It was easy to find the Ubon Passport office after the help provided by members.

We went yesterday and were in and out in about 15 minutes !!! No problems at all.

Very efficient and helpful staff....far better than our previous experiences in Bangkok.

Highly recommend this office if such services are required.

I understand that placement in the better government schools is determined by an entrance examination. Students that get the required grade enroll for free (or a modest entrance fee). Students that do not get the required grade will usually attend schools of a lower standard. I have heard (first-hand) that students that fail the grade may, for a small financial inducement (20,000 to 40,000 Baht - no receipt, no questions asked), 'buy' there way into the better schools. This may answer your question why a parent will pay a 30,000 to 40,000 Baht joining fee.

This is my understanding as well....but it sure does not make it any more acceptable or even legal.

My children will be facing this in a year or two and I just wanted to open the topic up so that I will know what to expect in the future.

Just where does the money go? Maybe that question is never asked or even considered....just accepted as "thats the way things happen around here like so many other things !!" Normally I am happy to pay for the goods and services required but I buck at getting well and truly ripped off for these same services. Thanks anyway Nomad97

Can someone please explain why a parent would pay a 30,000 - 40,000 baht fee in order to have a child enrol at a local government school.

By the way, no receipts are provided for such a "placement fee"....is this common practice in Isaan? Am I missing something? Sounds to me like a bloody scam.

My wife does have a large family; the males of which are all unemployed so the allowance I give does have to stretch to a lot of people.

Ever asked yourself or your wife WHY they are all unemployed? Please don't accept the "lack of opportunity" excuse. The males in my village who do nothing are simply bloody lazy and would not work in an iron lung - even if one had world class management skills. Despite educational limitations, the guys around my village who want to have a real go in life can find many opportunities to work - and they do.

So I find it impossible to accept your idea re any sort of family business opportunity, with you in a management role with the plan to later turn the business over to this same family.

After saying this, I am obviously pretty slow and took your initial query at face value - hope you have enjoyed the wind up mate!!