Ripple

Haha! That was a good one, you guys at TVForums!

One thing I wish would happen though, is that Thais figure out which side you are supposed to WALK on. They have yet to pick an official side. It's a solid pain in the arse to walk down the sidewalks when no one knows which side you are supposed to be on. And factor in that the way Thai people often walk. It's like they are not fully committed to the act of walking....they almost go in reverse. They sprawl all over what little space is available and become virtual roadblocks and only really move when they see you coming...that's when they walk straight into you! They look so offended when you ask them if they walked before. Amazing Thailand...

I wonder who created the title of this article..."Mr. Condom 'Spearheads' fight against Thailand's new AID crisis?" Was that to be a pun? Is Thailand now the hub of "spearheading?"

Thai Whiskey = Poison

Had he been drinking vodka he might well still be with us.

He obviously was unaware that Thailand is the hub of bad liquor.

And what about encroachment on all the dam_n sidewalks? I understand that's the way it is in major market areas of Bangkok and other big cities, but even in smaller towns the businesses gradually expand on to the sidewalks making hard to walk or ride a bicycle. Is there ANY rules or regulations (except that farangs wear helmets) in this country?

Sometimes it seems like there are way too many people with nothing better to do than to speculate on an issue in which they don't have all the facts. It is strange though to bring yaba here from such a distance, but then again all we could do is speculate. There could be a number of profitable reasons for doing so.

Sometimes this place just makes me want to vomit, Are they now shooting for the HUB of STUPIDITY?

Anyone with half a brain could see how poor of an idea this was in about 2 seconds. What a freakin' waste of money! This money could have went for many better projects to educate the students. But why educate them? You need them to work in the flooded rice fields. I figure that's the point anyway, otherwise why is there only about 4 libraries in this entire country?

Thai farmers should be urged to plant all self-maintaining crops. No tilling of the soil, no planting, no weeding, no harvesting--they just magically show up at the market and be sure to charge the farangs extra.

I would find that including the list of the thirty provinces that are the most vulnerable to the flooding as a valuable piece of information to have.

I have to go so far out of my way for a bloody beer Lao which I enjoy quite a lot. I ran into one joint that had Asahi draft (approx 6.7 %) and love it. But again it's way out of my way to get it. I have just been going with regular Asahi in big bottles. Quite a treat actually. Would be happy to get a decent Carlsberg.

Just out of interest does anyone know just how much Bangkok has sunk/ subsided in the last ten years. I remember about ten years ago massive monsoon downpours and sure enough roads would flood, but it was usually lasted an hour at most. Clearly the idea that it is raining more as a singular factor for the constant and frequent flooding doesn't wash.

There have to be other factors as work - has Bangkok started to sink? so the land is now lower in relation to the water table? has development blocked natural runoff path?

Good point...I was wondering about that myself. Perhaps Bangkok is sinking and the drainage routes are getting damaged in the process. I don't recall witnessing all these problems, say 5-10 years ago in relation to something as commonplace as roads draining rapidly during a rainstorm.

The picture at the start of this article says just about everything you really need to know about "flash flooding" in Bangkok.Note carefully that as this intersection the center of the intersection is LOWER than the pavements on each side....when the pedestrians wait.And where are the storm drains?Why there are placed in the side of the pavement....maybe 10 or 15 cm HIGHER than the center of the intersection,Since, even in Thailand, water does not run uphill, the center of the intersection does not drain....at leat until the water level reaches the level of the storm drains,Result? Well, obviously the rain runoff water pools in the center of the intersection.If you're trying to drain some place of water from heavy rains, it makes no sense to have those storm drains slightly higher than the lowest point you're trying to drain, does it?

I think it requires a really big degree and stuff and common sense to know to built the center of the road higher, so when it rains the water flows towards the drains. Of course if no cleaning maintenance is ever to be performed on the drains, you may make the center of the roads as low as you wish.

So let me get this straight...this has effectively become the Hub of police that implant their genitals?

Well, just to be optimistic, perhaps we will learn something useful from this test. If it works out fine, then it would seem that some progress has actually been made to reduce the flooding problems.

It's kind of nice to see some action instead of talk only.

I appreciate your info very much riceyummm. Thank you!

Same here. They can shove their dual pricing. It's racist in my opinion. I have never seen it done anywhere else. So while I miss natural surroundings I will not go to a single place that charges farangs more than Thais.

I am not so surprised that teens are finding new ways to deal with their pain and sadness of living in this horribly corrupt world, awful atmosphere and slim chance of getting a promising career or small business.

Sad for sure, but there is a sound reason behind their reactions (in a majority of cases). The real sadness lies in the fact that individually we do little or nothing to help resolve the serious issues facing the planet today. Even starting a free blog with info about horrific corruption or other important topics is a great way to start. We are just individuals, but one small act daily adds up to a HUGE sum of inspiring and knowledge-creating work each month!

It's so sad that teens are finding new ways to get high. It is happening all over the world kids experimenting

From what I have been able to gather online. If you are just growing a couple of simple things, and especially if it's more of a hobby than having a serious reason for growing something indoors, I think CFL bulbs can handle the situation. Cheap and easy on the electric bill. If I ever get off my lazy ass and start growing something instead of just talking about it, I will definitely share my experiences with you all. It seems to me that the benefit of MH and HPS bulbs is they produce more lumens, thus making the growing process faster. This is great for a professional, but I can wait an extra week or two for something to mature. Not to mention the serious amount of power are needed to run these lights and in a hot city like Bangkok, you will be faced will having to find a way to remove the excessive heat generated by such high power bulbs

What is it April 1st??

I imagine they are simply afraid of others bringing fake goods being of a better quality.

Thank you all for your considerate replies. I like the idea of the T5s, but I wonder what would work best for the flowering stage? Though I largely intend to grow flat leaf parsley and wheat grass and won't have a flowering stage, I would still like to get all the bases covered in case I decide to grow anything else, so if anyone knows a relatively cheap fluorescent way to go during the flowering stage, that would be great.

I have hunted through Home Pro and they actually do sell Metal Hallide lamps (a little over 3,000 baht--I think they were 400 watts). I found out that they also have 150 watt high pressure sodium lights as well. They just don't think of or know these as "grow" lights as I believe people generally buy them for residential lighting. It took tons of questioning to find this out since things are not labelled so well.

And thanks so much for the web address. I think I will get a native Thai speaker to call them and find out all the details as the site was a bit hard for me to navigate.

Thanks again!

Ripple

Thanks tomster. After more investigation I found that using the correct type of fluorescent bulb at the appropriate time-- vegetative grow, flowering, etc. should do the trick. A little more research and I should be ready to go!

LED grow lights are way overpriced and at best average at growing plants.

As far as I know nobody sells grow lights here due to lack of demand with sunlight being so plentiful.

My advice would be head down to Homepro and buy some fluorescent tubes and and small housing, You should be able to knock something up from there pretty easily.

Tom.

I would like to grow some of the Western herbs and vegetables that i am used to in my condo, but can't find anywhere in Bangkok that sells grow lights. I am especially interested in LED grow lights. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Or Ripple forum perhaps

Perhaps this was covered in previous posts and if this is the case, please forgive me as I haven't the time to read them all just yet. But simple things in this land besides the fact that hardly anyone seems to speak English, is that the sales rep in whatever store you seem to go in can not answer any of your questions even if you have a Thai person speak to them on the phone on your behalf. They apparently receive little or no training regarding customer service. Also, frequently I have stopped in various small shops to make a purchase and even though I was the first person there and am ready to buy, if a Thai walks in I am immediately ignored. It's the stuff like this that is quite a turn off as well.

Yeah, washing your hands is a dandy idea...especially if you use soap! Thais have an unclean habit of sharing the same glasses and plates while eating and drinking. They say it makes them feel warm. I guess getting a fever qualifies as warm.