Ajarn

I'm someone who appreciates what a bar can do to a family. I have lived here a long time and my opinon is based on the facts of the matter.

Yes, and what a laudable living it is, right? sad.gif

What a curmudgeonly fellow you are Ajarn.

That you associate bars with sleaze, excess and being detrimental to family life is perhaps a reflection of the bars you visit or have visited.

I prefer to think of a bar as a place where the community can gather and meet in an informal and relaxed setting. Places where families and others go to celebrate special occasions and enjoy the fine art of living. After over 20 years in the bar business I can think of dozens of couples that first met in one or other of the bars I have run and have gone on to marry and start families. What is not laudable about that?

After 20 years in the bar business, of course you are going to have a different story to tell about bars. As I do from my experience with them. Take away the alcohol and I would agree with you. Why the need to drink?

I think the Law is a good idea. There is nothing wrong with allowing some Thai families more time with their spouse. Maybe some farang families could use it too. If it were my decision, I would close all of the bars. A Better Thailand, in my opinion.

the truth of the matter is that it can never be your decision and thank god for that! .. allowing some thai families more time with their spouse?? are u for real ?? ya sure, let those girls at the bars spend some quality time with their spouse !

With a name like Tigerbeer, I can imagine where your interests lie. With a name such as I have, maybe you can imagine where my interests lie. Never the twain shall meet.

I think the Law is a good idea. There is nothing wrong with allowing some Thai families more time with their spouse. Maybe some farang families could use it too. If it were my decision, I would close all of the bars. A Better Thailand, in my opinion.

It sounds like someone is turning into an old fart!

I'm an old fart? No. I'm someone who appreciates what a bar can do to a family. I have lived here a long time and my opinon is based on the facts of the matter.

You're right Ajarn. I've also lived here a long time and I know that bars allow some Thai families to earn a living. That's unbearable. Close them all and send this people to the nearest job center.

Yes, and what a laudable living it is, right?

I think the Law is a good idea. There is nothing wrong with allowing some Thai families more time with their spouse. Maybe some farang families could use it too. If it were my decision, I would close all of the bars. A Better Thailand, in my opinion.

It sounds like someone is turning into an old fart!

I'm an old fart? No. I'm someone who appreciates what a bar can do to a family. I have lived here a long time and my opinon is based on the facts of the matter.

I think the Law is a good idea. There is nothing wrong with allowing some Thai families more time with their spouse. Maybe some farang families could use it too. If it were my decision, I would close all of the bars. A Better Thailand, in my opinion.

If it is like the past years, pollution will be minimal during Songkhran, with some light rain during the festival. It will start raining a lot in May, from the beginning of the month

Larry

They're Rottweilers though.. known to kill.

I can see this thread turning very quickly into which dogs are evil etc.........

Or not turning into anything

Hi,

I'm also looking to buy a motorbike in Chiang Mai. Can anyone tell me what time are the weekend motorbike bike markets are open?

Thanks,

Claire

The one I have seen (Meechoke Plaza) is starting to gather players around 8 am.

Yesyerday, I ordered from 'Meals on wheels for u' a cheeseburger, chili dogs, fries, and a peanut butter-banana milkshake from Joe Jets. As expected, the milkshake arrived melted and tasted like crap. The fries were warm and edible, while the chilidog had the best tasting hot dog I've had in Chiang Mai. The Cheeseburger was HUGE, great bun, and was absolutely delicious

Thanks for the review, that sounds awesome!!! (The dissappointments I think were related to the delivery; fries also don't travel all that well usually.)

Yes, for sure if I had gone there to eat, eveything (except the skake, of course) would have been great. I think it is the best Cheeseburger I have had in Thailand..

A Pissy amount of rain, forecasted every year won't help you much, I'm afraid. No storms at all until after Songkran

Sounds nice ajarn are you on a motorcycle or pedal bike ?

Nope, I'm in an Isuzu PU with aircon

Yesyerday, I ordered from 'Meals on wheels for u' a cheeseburger, chili dogs, fries, and a peanut butter-banana milkshake from Joe Jets. As expected, the milkshake arrived melted and tasted like crap. The fries were warm and edible, while the chilidog had the best tasting hot dog I've had in Chiang Mai. The Cheeseburger was HUGE, great bun, and was absolutely delicious

I haven't done anything, or plan to do anything. I'm just enjoying life as normal. But on my day-long rides into the mountains, I'm taking far fewer pictures than the norm, because of the smog and the fact that the green has almost disappeared

Well if the police met their quota of seized bikes guess that explains today's scene. Police check point on the klong in city cop had a young man doing push ups on the blacktop for some reason. I watched him drive off on honda dream with no helmet.

It sounds to me like you were there watching long enough for some photos

I'm looking to buy some orange tree saplings. Particulary, 'Sai Nam Phung'

Any ideas for a place to buy them in Amphur Mueng, Chiang Mai?

I bicycle to work which is about an 8 km trip each way. Halfway through the commute, I noticed that my eyes stung when sweat gets into them - which was rather unusual. It must be from all the smoke!

Smoked sweat stings.

Jahil, this is a temporary situation. Start of the rainy season the smog disappears.

You must understand that this is part of the natural cycle and is a necessary one. If forests were not allowed to have a "controlled" burn, the forest litter would accumulate and if it burnt, the trees would be killed. If the forest litter is allowed to burn a little at a time, the trees would not die. So we all just have to live with it.

Silly boy, you think all this smoke is from the 'litter fires'? They account for less than 1% of the smoke, in my estimation. It is NOT something we have to live with at all because most are unneeded.

It has started in Chiang Mai. No plates? No invoice? Lose your bike.

Apparently the word has come down to seize 100 illegal bikes. Only 30 so far.

Watch out!!!

Excellent idea, I'm very glad to see that the law is being applied at last, just hope they follow it up by seizing all the un-plated cars that you see driving around, new ones included. Why should I have to go and jump through all the hoops and pay all the expenses when some just don't give a toss?

Nothing wrong with new cars with no plates, they're waiting for their plates. When you buy a new car, red plates are offered for a deposit of 1,000 to 3, 000 baht. You can take the red plates, or not use any plates until your car is registerd.

You really are a strange character Ajarn! Why are you always at loggerheads with what people post? It's almost as if you're looking for a virtual fight sometimes: angry: Try to be nice, and maybe even agree with some posters, sometimes?

Ajarn has been on a diet for something like 2 years and lost 100's of lbs. Anyone who has dieted knows what utter misery it is (I am on another one at the moment). Who can blame him from being a little snapish sometimes.

Maybe I sound snapish at times, but I never feel snapish. How are you doing on your new diet? I'm trying to diet using the Meals on Wheels for you, but having only a bit of success

You really are a strange character Ajarn! Why are you always at loggerheads with what people post? It's almost as if you're looking for a virtual fight sometimes: angry: Try to be nice, and maybe even agree with some posters, sometimes?

My impression is that Ajarn does not suffer fools lightly, but I have seen him agree with other posters any number of times. He might even agree with this one.

No, I don't suffer fools lightly at all, but I don't want to get anyone thinking that maybe I'm the fool. I post what I post with the intention of educating people to the truth. Some people get mad about that, but that's life

Sorry Aitch if my posts bother you. my only intentention when I post is to educate. When someone posts something I don't agree with, I post what I believe the facts are. No intention to piss anyone off, but there are a lot of fragile egos here, I think. I always try to be nice, never to start shitting on anyone, etc. If you think I am wrong, please post why. I can accept the truth from anyone.

As far as air quality goes, March is the worst time of year for Chiangmai. The pollution has been breaching government-defined acceptable levels by 50% on many days. Personally, if it were feasible for me, I'd escape the city this time of year and you actually want to pay good money to come here.

Having said that, if you're healthy and only here for a few days, you'll be alright— if being alright is all you want from a holiday. If you want to enjoy all that Chiangmai has to offer (and it has plenty, including beautiful clear skies and crisp mountain air—just not in March), I respectfully suggest November as a good time.

--oops, looks like Mapguy beat me to saying something quite similar.

I think we all agree that the air is positively grotty at the moment, and has been so for the last two weeks. However, for the sake of precision, the air pollution level at the Chiang Mai measuring station has only exceeded the government-defined level (120 µg/m3) on one day so far this year (2 March). The last time before that was on 19 March 2007.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that we are not heading into a March like the one of 2007

/ Priceless

True. The figures are from around March 2nd (as reported on the news) but subsequent days have seemed to me to be almost as bad and I assumed the figures would be similar, I should have clarified. The negative assumption stemmed from the fact that the burning feeling in my eyes that began earlier in the week continues unabated. I realize that on an accuracy scale, that's somewhat above 'perception' but way below empirical data.

My sense from watching the news and endless discussions by television talking heads is that the authorities are this year much more aware of the seriousness of the problems and acting to mitigate the situation as best they can instead of burying their heads in the sand and blaming everything on burnings in Burma the way they did in 2007. I'm therefore hopeful that less negligence will result in less pollution this year. Kpeenig my Fnigres corsesd. dam_n! that affects my typing.

My apologies, I realize I was nit-picking a bit I guess it's just that I am so tired of some members who post blatantly false information that I sometimes overreact a bit to rather minor errors.

Let's hope that you are right about the authorities becoming more aware and actually starting to act. As has been pointed out, the emissions problem is unfortunately a regional one as can be seen from this picture that shows fires during the last week (source: http://maps.geog.umd.edu/website/Activefir...dMap=Thailand):

/ Priceless

But on the serious side....... anybody else see the picture of the dog in the map ??? Dog sitting on his haunches facing left..... Look at the outline of the map..... Pretty clear to me...... Now thats important...

Gonzo

I see the Dog Gonzo, your right mate. Time to get out of dodge.

Seriously though, I'm sat here in rural Chiang rai and we've actually got smog in the room. Kids are coughing so am I. I can see the fire line on the horizon in the same place as last night. So they've restarted the Fire. Did someone say the authorities are taking this seriously Just thinking about maybe taking a trip further south when the kids finish school for the holidays. How many of you guys consider it also. Not wanting to be too dramatic but a sort of temporary evacuation ?

Leave if you want. I'm enjoying myself here too much to split

Well, in my experience, most bikers don't have insurance, and if they have an accident, their 'rights' are respected as anyones.

How would you characterize the breadth of your experience?

20 solid years of biking in Thailand, and accidents (not mine)

if you are involved in an accident and your 100% in the right and your bike is not plated you are 100% in the wrong

Maybe that's what the law says, but in reality it is not an issue of accident fault if without a plate, the cops still think of the accident facts when offering blame for an accident

But surely if you have no registration, you can't get any insurance of any kind. If you don't have any insurance, then you have no claim even if your riding was in the right. All expenses would be off your own back too, providing you lived through the accident of course! And if the cops think of the accident facts, one fact would be that the unregistered bike should not have been on the road to begin with, and if the rider had abided by the law, then this particular accident would never have happened.

Aitch

Well, in my experience, most bikers don't have insurance, and if they have an accident, their 'rights' are respected as anyones. It would be nice (for some) to live in your perfect world, but this is Thailand, sir

if you are involved in an accident and your 100% in the right and your bike is not plated you are 100% in the wrong

How about the rest of us who are downwind?!

We are upwind, I'd say. Good news after a long struggle.

New lignite mine going on in Wieng Hang. It is said to be the reason for the major road construction going on between Chiang Dao and Chiang Mai, allowing all their trailer trucks to haul Lignite to Lampang... Not sure of truth, but I keep hearing the same story from people who would know...