Estrada

Why can't Thai cities be like London, or Sydney, even Brisbane? They don't have traffic congestion, or slow highway traffic during holidays, do they?

London 8.6 million Inhabitants

Sydney 3.6

Brisbane 2.3.

Bankok 11 Million + 3 Million not registered in Bkk, + 6 million people working in Bkk, + 2 million tourist.... but if you like to compare apples with pears...

Well done.. You are right about the real population of Bangkok. I found this out when researching for the Bangkok Solid Waste Master Plan in 1999. The BMA thought they only had 6 million but I found that the real figure at that time was around 17 million, which is one reason that they could not cope with the amount of waste they were really getting.

Bad journalism or bad policy. I don't see any real measures. I'm ready to follow the rules or the advice but what I have to do exactly? Is there any decisions made?

Just more hot air from the BMA. I helped write the Bangkok Solid Waste Master Plan for the BMA in 1997. This included waste material recycling with coloured bins in every community. It also included funds to conduct lectures in every school and community to encourage the Thai people to cooperate in waste separation at source. These lectures have been given regularly for at least 20 years but very few Thais will cooperate.

These lectures are more about "Benefits" to BMA and the companies paid to produce the many Solid Waste Plans, waste separation pamphlets and lectures, than making sure that the wast eis actually separated at source.

Around 6 months ago the BMA already gave a lecture in the community and issued a booklet to everyone requesting them to separate their waste into the various different materials. However, very few want to cooperate. In our Moo Bahn in Bangkok, consisting of around 100 houses, I am the the only person separating the waste and I have my own BMA bin.

In 1997 we installed a machine to convert waste Tetrapak milk cartons into furniture at Onuch Waste Transfer Station, but I doubt if it is still working because there is little cooperation by the public to wash and separate the cartons.

The people do not need more lectures on separating waste, they know what they should be doing but they could not be bothered. Until the people are forced to pay a fine (as in Australia) if they do not separate their waste, nothing is going to change.

Often caused by drinking alcoholic drinks. If you are a drinker, give up drinking and after 2-3 months the excessive sweating should stop.

I have arrived here 100s of times without a return or onward ticket since 1982 on 30 day visa exemption entries. Some years ago they asked me about an onward ticket and I just told them the truth, that I was going to pick it up in Bangkok or the Airport. I assume that they must be profiling.

Six of us have recently been across as a VIP escorted by a Police Colonel... No day pass, only needed a photocopy of our passports. Immigration police appear to have an interest in a duty free alcohol shop just after the bridge (not the old one alongside). It pays to know someone, because Thailand is still the land of all possibilities.

One reason for inaction on the part of the Malaysian Authorities on UFUN activities in Malaysia is the the Malaysia PMs son is involved in the scam.

I invested B6,000,000 in the SET stocks in 2009 and have made B36Million by investing in trustworthy stocks with an upside to valuation of around 39% and a dividend aorund 6-8% plus. There are probably only around 10 stocks that will give you around 20%+ return per year (combined Dividend and increase in Value). BTS has a 30%+ upside and guaranteed dividend of around 8% this year. Ridership is at near record levels and should surpass 20Million trips per month in the coming months, which means more profit. I bought BTS at B0.70 and sold at 10.30. I have bought back at 9.05 and expect it to reach 10.40 in the coming months. It should return at least 20% in the next 12 months. Advance(AIS) and parent Company Intuch are a good long term bet with a dividend aorund 6.6% and I even got 17.5% dividend from Advance in a previous year. Telecom shares are a good bet for long term investment as they are likely to shoot up towards the end of the year due to the 4G auction.

I just checked my records and I am averaging 5% return/month this year on my investment in Thai Stocks.

But remember to buy low, sell high.

Also get out of stocks worldwide in 2018. because there is likely to be a stock market crash as has happened every 11years. The last one was in 2008 prior to that there was 1997 etc etc. Get back into stocks after the 2018 crash at bargain prices and ride the cycle again.

Finally... Steer clear of financial consultants especially in Thailand.

The problem is a disconnected cable/cables or loose conection. Thai amateur electricians do not use proper connection boxes, they just twist the wires together and hope for the best.

The household waste collection fee was raised in Bangkok from B20 to B60 along time ago. The increase to B150 is therefore only 2.5times.

Why the increase? If you read the newspapers you should remember that Police General Somyot Pumpunmuang, the Chief of Police under the Government of General Prayut, owns 50% of M-Link. The Samart/M-Link JV aims to build at least seven Waste To Energy Plants, therefore the collection fee needs to be increased substantially to pay the JV to process the waste.

200-240 kilograms. First time i've seen milk in weight, normally in litres.

It pretty much works either way. 1 liter = 1.03kg

I worked for Australian Dairies (Thai Dairy Industries). Milk is bought and sold by weight as it is transfered to the packaging plant by tanker. When the tanker enters the packaging plant it is weighed and after emptying it is weighed again on exit. The S.G. and fat content of the milk is also taken into account. We pay for weight and fat content not by the litre otherwise the farmers would add water to get more volume.

Most of the bottle type packaged sewage plants here were copied from a design I invented 30 years ago. There is no problem with normal toilet tissue being placed into the sewage system. It actually breaks down into very small pieces that act as sites for colonies of bacteria to digest the waste products. I haven't emptied my septic tank in 15 years.

Don’t Flush the Toilet Paper in South America

http://myasmine.com/dont-flush-the-toilet-paper-in-south-america/

2014 Sochi Olympics: Don't flush toilet paper

http://fansided.com/2014/02/04/2014-sochi-olympics-dont-flush-toilet-paper/

I find it almost impossible to believe that anyone could be so little traveled not to know about septic tank systems.

This dissolvable toilet tissue looks like a "Breakthrough" in Toilet Tissue Technology!

Yes... Blame the US Government, CIA and FBI. The forms were introduced as an anti-terror/anti-money laundering (AMLO) excercise. All transactions over a certain amount have to be reported primarily for the US Government's benefit. The forms start off by asking if you are a US Citizen and even if you are not, they still want as much information as they can get. I think I filled out three forms last time just to transfer money from my old time deposit account to a new one.

This info goes to "America - World Police"

At the beginning of this month Maybank requested me to fill in a form for AMLO purposes to report when I transfered B10,000 to my wife's brokerage account.

Never had a problem in our Moo Bahn in Bangkok. The BMA and local politicians treat me the same as Thai. The road used to flood and they raised the road, improved the drains and now it doesn't flood. Every year I also get a free meal and presents when they pay repsect to the old people here. The local politicians treat us to a street party and meal even though I can't vote. They also send us on coach holidays to Hua Hin/Cha Ahm to pay for our votes.

Very confusing news articles. Firstly this happened in Sukhumvit Soi 101/1 Moo Bahn Maneeya Ville Soi 12 not Sukhumvit 101, where a friend lives. The address given is halfway inside the housing estate. The Bangkok Post report gave the house number and that the explosion was due to 3 small ping pong bombs, suspected to have been left there by some teenagers who were fighting inside the soi. Since this housing estate has security guards on the gate it is unlikely that this was due to red shirts or whatever conspiracy TV readers will come up with.

Dear Tonika,

Please take your money out of this. No good is going to come of it.

how come you are so sure about it?

UFUN is here to stay. We all will keep earning no matter what you keep saying!

They just shut it down and arrested most of these crooks. It was a B12Billion Baht scam.

When I was writing the BMA Solid Waste Management Report, I went to the National Statistics Office. This is now situated on the second floor of The Government Complex,Building B, Chaeng Watthana Rd, Laksi Bangkok 10210 Thailand Tel. (66) 02142-1234 Information Services: [email protected]

You will find on their web site links to reports from a number of Ministries, you mainly need the Ministry of Public Health reports here:

http://service.nso.go.th/nso/nso_center/project/search_center/23project-en.htm

The latest reports are 2012/2013. But at the N.S.O. you can request more up to date information as required. You can also get infomation from Statistical publications sold by Asia Books.

I also got a lot of information from the Asia Institute of Technology Library (A.I.T.).

My kids got their Thai passports the next day at Tanya Plaza Srinakarin, and they did not have to pay more than B1,000.

It seems to me that this is a clever ploy to get people to hang around in the restaurants and market which some officers have an interest in while waiting for their passports to be ready in the afternoon.

Oh no, Thailand, don't build a design which is compatible or interchangeable with one of the existing designs, don't save money through economies of scale. And be sure to create a completely new payment card system, so everyone can have three (or more) cards to load...

Monorail, schmonorail...will they ever learn?

It makes sense as Srinakarin road is still very congested. The yellow line monorail is only to replace the 145 Airconditioned bus service from Samrong to Morchit. Passenger numbers do not warrant a more expensive system as on the Green Line. The payment card system to be implemented by next year and operated jointly by BTS, MRTA, BMTA, SRT Airport/Citilink and the Government will allow you to travel seamlessly on all rail and bus systems in Bangkok.

It is likely that BTS will when the operation Contract for both contracts, but I am keeping an eye on CP Group who also want to get in on some of the other operation contracts.

In the past different areas celebrated the Songkran Festival on different dates. Prapadaeng in Bangkok and Pattaya used to celebrate Songkran a week after Bangkok. Now the festival is supposed to be coordinated on 4 days 12th to 15th April, however Pattaya is going to hold it from 11th to 19th April

US military cartographers made the most accurate maps of Thailand during the Vietnam war.

Before that, James McCarthy a British surveyor working as the Director-General of the Siamese Government Surveys mapped the country between 1881 and 1883.

The US Army maps were leaked to the market in the early '80s and were obtainable if you had the right connections. Regrettably, I didn't, but I saw one quadrant of the northwest on display at a secondhand bookstore in Bangkok at the time. The owner refused to sell it.

Since then I haven't seen any or heard of any place where they might be available.

James McCarthy's book, Surveying and Exploring in Siam [reprint White Lotus 1994] describes his work with the Siamese Government Surveys in the 1880s.

Thongchai Winichakul's Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation [university of Hawaii Press] is also of considerable interest and relevant to the subject.

DK Books used to sell these maps made for the Thai Army by the US Army. I have a couple of the maps which were published in 1984 for civilian use by The Royal Thai Survey Department of the Supreme Command Headquarters. Scale 1:50,000 and 1:250,000 for Changwat Phuket. I used it when I was working on the Phuket Water Supply Scheme. However some MPs and the Military did not like detailed maps in the hands of civilians so they ceased to be published. I always had to get a written request with reasons to get a section of the maps issued for various projects after that, I could no longer buy them in a book shop. I believe that the military still control all the maps and even Google maps are censored so you will not find certain buildings and army roads which are deemed against National Security to show. They certainly do not want large scale zoom maps on google that would show their car with number plate, parked outside their Mia Noi's house. Quite why some of the Elites buildings are fogged out I can't say, but I think it has more to do with illegal construction, land encroachment and the like. You can no longer get an Royal Thai Survey Map which the military have, so you cannot navigate as well as with a map in the UK. maps from "Thinknet" are about the best you can get unless you work for a Company or firm of Consultants and can apply for them with a good reason for having them.