eyecatcher

How do you taste the food was not from Makro?

We must assume he didn't order a california wrap.

Remember....life is cheap here.

Its commonplace to notice the lack of health and safety here, as it is easy to be overburdened by our over the top western rules.

Whoever located the seating in that area could do with watching a reconstruction of their child climbing on the chair to look over, then perhaps the penny will drop.

In the uk balustrades are set at 1100mm high,ten year ago it was 950mm.

if the drop exceeds 4m then you are simply not allowed to have any horizontal bar or anything adjacent to step on from 150 to 750 from the floor..

Did you ever go the cinema foyer in central and look over that one....now that's a scary scary drop.

Yesterday I was walking around the landing over the warorot indoor market, that railing didn't reach my waist and I too was thinking a leap of faith from here wouldn't turn out too well.

I love them....they help me to read post 2 and then post 3.

You will be really pi$$ed off when you see the > to indicate change the page.

Some years ago my son was considering moving to San Pa Tong with his girlfriend or somewhere near that area, and this is what made him change his mind:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/10/14/national/national_30052381.php

And what was the result of the test? They are cheap and easy to do and radon exists all over the world.

Most people are not even aware of radon. The uk introduced radon barriers into the building regs in late 90s.

Only required where the geophysics survey indicated high levels. The northern mining areas and uplands were often prone.

The solution simply a another version of a damp proof membrane, and the underground ventilation pipes.

Now compare high spec cold weather construction to here.....thai houses are are as ventilated as they get,especially the traditional houses.

The risk...if any may be the new moo ban houses.

All sounds like unsubstantiated rubbish to me.

When I was back in the UK a few months ago, I watched a tv programme about pickpockets.

The ukraine and Romania are the biggest suppliers of pickpocketing gangs on the world.

Biggest target was London but They deploy now to major tourist destinations.

At the point of starting a conversation with a Ukraine it wouldn't surprise me if you become "the mark"

Best not even to humour them, just in case.

I remember last years talking to a mate about why cricketers wear white clothes.

Well its obvious, we all know that answer......but when I checked on the net, there was no evidence to suggest that a few hours cricket playing in white would keep them cooler than playing in black.

After your post I checked again regarding building materials. The suggestion was that in hot climes if you paint your house with white paint and have white roof tiles then you can expect to save around 10 to 15% on your air con costs.

There is of course a science behind the colour white and its low absorption of the other colours of the spectrum making up sunlight and black absorbing all of them, but with a grade c in physics and chemistry others can explain better.

What I did glean is, there is one thing better than white.....a mirror but on a roof no!

The next best thing though is a solar reflective...aluminium foil faced fleece under the tiles. As your second row of defence. This is imperative here, and there are many threads on foil sheets,metal sheets, read them.

For tiles, we have white concrete tiles, concrete is a great hear absorbing material and to go with white/cement grey that's light reflective also.

I looked at our dirty white grey roof on google maps and it shows as a white rectangle, that's satisfying that it just shines in the sun.

I was reading about the roof tiles they go for on the mediterranean areas, pre dominantly the terracotta pantiles/ half barrel style. They are set up so they create tunnels up the roof for the wind to aerate and cool the roof, but the barrel half pipe tiles create a sun/shade effect on every tile at every hour of the day.....so effectively only half your roof is in the sun at any one time.

Just some good for thought.

Personally painting tiles does them a dis service. It will crack and flake in weeks. There was a practice in the uk at one time to turn the old slates to match the new, but you cannot do this with tiles with hanging lugs unfortunately.

My advice, fit some insulation reflective foil and wait a year for the new tiles to blend in with the existing.....at the same time it may be possible for someone to jetwash the old ones to mitigate the difference.

Cotto, among others, do a mold resistant grout, don't they?

Yes malcolm they probably do, as do every other grout and adhesive manufacturer in the world.....which is why I suggested it as being priority just 2 posts before yours!

Keep up mate!

Maybe we should have a survey as to which nationalities "get" sarcasm.

The Brits created sarcasm, so you have to be a Brit or closely related, like some Aussies.

Narrowing down even the southern English are slow to pick up on it.

It is unique and understood by so few. All my posts have sarcasm there that's why they fall on deaf ears, but its ok I make allowances as does everyone who starts a sentence "with respect"

Keep on topic guys

I got my first licences a month ago, longest day of my life.

The computer test was a joke. I had an hour before they opened in the afternoon.

So I played on their test machine,went through the questions twice and looked at every road sign on the posters.

When it came to the test, it was all very formal, I had one hour.

30 questions, two repeated themselves, one question came up 4 times but the correct answer was not on the 4 options.the first time..oh dear.

Fortunately it was there the next 3 times.

Every question I had already answered over the two test runs I did.

Finished the test in 7 minutes going carefully, and got 29/30 top of the class eh!

it was a joke;, I have not seen a highway code since 1980 yet a fifteen minute play on their machine gave me a maximum....bar the question without the correct option.

I would say guys, you don't need to worry about the test if you have the western driving standard and an ounce of intelligence.

I predict in 5yrs only farangs on the road......wouldn't that be nice?

Do they still ask you if its ok to park a tank on double yellows or something similarly strange?...

I think the question was, does it need a road tax disc.

Maybe they can do a "gonzo" and offer 10% off to TV members as a thankfully for the free publicity.

Seems like it will be quiet for ever more because no one can pass the driving test now.

That's a "1" in the air for the expats

Well i had to make love with the wife for four days running in the earlier days after the soaps were switched off

Thankyou Prayuth....normal service resumed again.

The purpose of the hidden camera is to be covert., but as you say its not easy to have a portable camera that isnt itself a target.

I have a covert camera app on my phone; i dont use it as it seems a bit sinister/perverted, but the basic premice is that no one even knows you have the app as the logo is something like a "notepad"

your phone looks like it is switched off, no lights no nothing, you just need to prop it up somewhere.

..that itself draws attention; who leaves their phone propped up?

of course you dont want your phone to get nicked, so you could buy a second hand smart phone that you dont care about.

otherwise; isnt there a hidden camera/security cam shop on the chang puak side of the moat, past the gas station.

Contrary to several above comments, we have just had our busiest back to back months in 3yrs.

April and may have been great for us even including at least 6 days last month where we had no customers.

The traditional february surge however was very noticeable, we were down maybe 40% on the previous february and that was due to other countries clamping down on the political situation.

But then all that happened was that they waited a month or so to come back, so Songran was heaving more than ever.

I am never complacent about day to day business but wherever they come from we seem to drop lucky.

....ooh, gotta go another 4000bt just walked in!

Gloating smugness, how nice.

The topic is clear and precise and your little slap on your own back doesn't answer the question. In any economy, even during recession there will always be businesses that are bucking the trend. However, it is clear that tourist numbers are down and will be for a while. Depending on how things develop I expect it to be down for at least the next four months.

There's no floating or smuggness from me, maybe a hint of sarcasm in the last sentence.

The OP asked for opinions of those who have tourist experience not from anyone else.

It is my experience that the last two months have been great for us.....how can I be modest without it sounding smug.

But you now seem to have eyes into the future, I will report back in two months to advise how it went.

Just remember the fortunes and misfortunes of every business don't just depend on number of tourists.

Makro have a few variations, think in jars like dolmio.

At hang dong branch its the very first display shelf you pass.

buy new. cheap as chips. the wife just bought a brand new Carrier brand 12,900 BTU for one of her rental properties. 10,500 Baht including installation from Big C. they also had a Samsung also about 13,000 BTU 11,300 Baht including installation. had a few more gimmicks on it. they are clearing out older models. brand new in box - full warranty. they tell you in advance how many meters of material they provide free (copper tube, pvc, etc.) she had to pay an additional 350 Baht as they needed a little longer tubes.

buying used is hit or miss. we once bought a nice Mitsubishi used, that was very clean. within 6 months the swing motor stopped working, and within 1 year the bushings were bad. not worth buying used to save such little money. my 2 Satang.

I really don't know. I have seen the units at Siam and Robertson and am never sure if they include the price for the outside unit. Every once in a while I get to thinking of getting a new one as the one I have is at least 10 years old.

The prices seem cheap to me for both the inside unit and out side unit but also expensive for just the inside unit.

Siam advertised prices are for the complete unit (inside and outside) with free installation (standard pipes and gas included).

The only extra charge is for the outside floor or wall mount, usually about 300bht.

I was at siam just a month ago, and the installation charge is as follows

Automatically included is 4m of copper pipework and 15m of electrical cable.

For a ground mounted compressor the charge is 500bt and for a wall mounted compressor the charge is 800bt.

That's siam charges, they are pinned up but I needed a translation.

Pretty fair imho

Where is this place ?

It is on Ratviti Rd opposite the Cm saloon and a but down from the Zoe corner.

And if there are any other cynics besides myself, most people know my business is strictly "hands on"....not hand pulled or hands in the air.

Never even been in this place....tho I should.

I agree with daffy, simply break into the feed from the switch to any of the lights, with new junction box and fix an external fuorescent or small bulb in a position you can see it.

Same switch operates all the lights..

Don't forget to switch off power on your fuseboard before tampering.

Your rule of thumb is about 600btu/m2 and add on another 300btu if you are on say a top floor or one with a lot of hear gain via glazing.

So your example would assume 600x26 = 15600btu

For a but of safety you should be rounding this up to 18000btu.

Which is gonna cost you 20_25k but depending on the model.

There is an archery centre right at the south west corner of the moat.

That's worth a look one day.

Can anyone else confirm the above cube rate.
2200bt seems too cheap as I have been told over 3000bt on full loads ( based on a 6m3 wagon....the standard)
The 4m3 is a small truck and I would expect costs to be higher still.
And of course price depends on strength whether its Gen 1,2,3.
High strength or a post mix.

I really should go an ask as there is a cpac plant just along the road from me!

I want to say the obvious....starts Chiang R., now with redesigned landscape....

......but I think its a trick question.