MrY

16 minutes ago, Media1 said:

No frontal brain surgery compulsory on all licence applications. Cameras wont save them

"Rather a bottle in front of me

than frontal lobotomy."

Cheers.

11 minutes ago, bdenner said:

Take a look at the FACTS before making obscure observations! The 1st officer is telling him he is heading North after 1 360 deg turn ??? It should have been South then during a terrain warning he calls it as faulty (his last words).

 

I'm pointing out the Thai mind set whether it be on the ground or in the air!

Correct. I mentioned the First Officer. Details are available elsewhere for those that are curious.

7 minutes ago, bdenner said:

The idiots driving the taxis and buses we are passengers in are not just confined to the ground.

Take a look at the National Geographic Channel (TrueVisions Channel 558) and look at Air Crash Investigations episode "The Lost Plane" currently being featured.

 

When your finished think carefully with whom you fly with as well. That Captain should have never been given a license to ride a push bike let alone fly a Thai International Airbus A310, slamming it into a mountain near Kathmandu!

NOT a good example. One of the trickiest airports, a flap malfunction, change of runway at the last minute (without any reason), an inexperienced first officer, and an inept air traffic controller, all making it practically a solo effort for the Captain. Does not make it excusable, but he certainly had the odds against him. The Surat Thani accident on the other hand... Anyway, back to the Thai roads!

2 hours ago, Kieran00001 said:

What happened to Libya?  On the last World Atlas list they had Libya at a rate double that of Thailand's, this time they are not even on the list, and it is only a matter of months between the lists being released, its difficult to imagine that Libya has turned things around so dramatically, seems more likely they have not submitted their statistics and remain at the top.

 

I'm happy to see Libya removed from the list. Their road fatalities have tripled since the fighting started and it was considered horrendous before. People tend to drive a little "different" in war zones (ask me how I know), so it's not realistic to include them.

As for the other countries on the list, I currently live and work in one of them, and have driven in half of the rest. I simply don't think Thailand has "earned" it's position on top. Some countries in Africa are truly harrowing to drive in. I can only speculate that it is the lack/suppression of statistics on this continent that puts Thailand even in Top 20. Driving in Thailand seems pretty tame compared to here. Certainly it is dangerous, but the worst in the world? Please!

Here improving road conditions just worsens the death toll as speeds with un-roadworthy vehicles and un-skilled drivers increase. In Nairobi they used to say about the highway to Mombasa: "If you didn't see an accident, you are either blind or were in an accident yourself!"

13 hours ago, Airbagwill said:

This again shows that both the law and police training are nowhere near ready to enforce the law. Which I believe if stated by a "competent police officer" is all that is needed in that situation. V. regarding changing the priority from the left rule and other temporary changes.

The point being that it is all very well asking officers to enforce the law, but on many occasions the law is an assignment, uninforceable and needs to be extensively reformed before it can contribute to road safety.

 

PS how do you know it was calibrated?

I absolutely don't know if it was or not. It's just the speed measured matched my cruise control setting  (I know, it's a dangerous device on Thai roads, but I often drive long distances and use it when the traffic is sparse). Having used a car club radar gun for a few years, they seem to need very little calibration anyway (except for legality).

There will be change. Unless of course you have the exact amount in your pocket...

...and it wasn't a calibration issue with my ticket. I was indeed driving approximately the speed I got a ticket for. The speed limit had been "temporarily changed" (but not actually posted). The reason stated? They needed people to slow down for the checkpoint. The very same one they used to issue fines for speeding...

"There is a logic, it's just not your logic." - Anonymous old-timer on Thailand

'Calibration' has way too many syllables to ever be used in Thailand.

Going back 20 years again, I read to my surprise Thailand had acquired their first 12 radar guns and was training the police force to use them. This was going to make a big difference in road safety. Not a word about when and if there would be more than twelve. A couple of years later I moved near a "Police Academy" in Bangkok and found out the number had indeed remained same. Two were used for training in more or less fixed locations around the academy (I still see radars being used in those spots quite frequently) and the other 10 were on rotating loans to the provinces. Police cadets were learning about radar, but many never even saw one. And what point would there be? I have been clocked exactly once over hundreds of thousands kilometers and got a 200 baht fine (an actual ticket, not a 'donation') for exceeding a non-existing speed limit by 38 km/h (!) on the highway (8 km/h over the actual verifiable limit). A mighty 5 Euro deterrent! At about the same time my friend in Europe lost his license for 6 months for a 'similar' violation (173 on 120 on an actual divided motorway with ramps and rails, etc.), got a €600 ticket, temporarily lost his driving job, spent another € 1000 to get his license re-issued, and he considered it justified punishment. My  €5 ticket is now on the wall of his garage...  A few other times there were claims my speed was checked by 'radar' but I was always let go when I insisted on seeing this magical ray gun. There are more radars in Thailand now, but clearly not enough to make a difference. No number of speed traps ever will if the fines cost less than a fill-up and don't accumulate in any way on your license. Same story with breathalyzers...

43 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

I'm sure this has been highlighted in recent posts about the system of recording of deaths due to road traffic accidents (RTA) in Thailand.

 

Even going back a few years, before this became high(er) profile, I remember reading a report that an RTA death used to only be counted if it occurred AT the scene. Fatalities occurring in ambulances, in hospitals later, were excluded from the figures, as "it didn't happen at the original location".

 

Then there was other haphazard reporting - some government(?) offices responsible for collating the figures excluded weekends and some public holidays, as the staff didn't work those days and the figures therefore weren't added.

Sure it's been highlighted now. I was just pointing out how far back this goes, and that the reporting has been known to be false equally long. Having argued against the official numbers for better part of 20 years, I'm quite enjoying the "new " findings that are coming out...

In '97 or so, there was an article in BKK Post about an independent study (foreign, Australian?) on Thai road safety. Comparing police reporting vs. the number of deaths recorded at hospitals in several provinces, the conclusion  was that the (underestimated) 1995 death toll of nearly 18,000 was actually about 50% more (~27,000). And in the early 2000s there was a pledge by the government to reduce road deaths by half. It got off to a slow start until the reporting agency was changed to a more "reliable" one. The death toll then promptly fell from "14,xxx" to "7,xxx" quite rapidly. I highly suspect the actual death toll has remained at 20-30,000 the whole time (since the '90s). T.I.T.

57 minutes ago, scotbeve said:

Any of you long term expats ever take your blood pressure after driving for only 20 min.?

Sent from my SM-N900 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

Anything above zero is good.

Resurrecting an old thread here, as apparently I had given some 'dangerous' advice.

Here's my old boiler setup explained;

I bought a [small] 30L boiler with advice from salesman not to set it full hot as this would deteriorate the insulation quite fast. Installed it at a location between kitchen and shower. Cranked it to max too see how hot it would get the water. After a few hours you could feel the outside of the tank was ever so slightly warmer than surrounding materials, and the the water coming out at the kitchen sink (closest tap) was 85C or so. Too hot in any case as I didn't want to invest in thermostatic valves and don't like burns. Then I set the thermostat to "E" (for 'Economy'?), ran the water until the heater light came on and went out again. Now below 50C. Not hot enough. A couple of small adjustments resulted in about 65C output (as I mentioned in the original post still quite hot) which, while hot enough for pots and pans, allows you to pull you hand away before getting scalded should you mistakenly stick your hand in the hot water. (This happens to me all the time. The wifey runs the hot water, turns off the tap without running a bit of cold water through, and the trap is set.) This happy medium lets her also take her long hot shower (steam bath?) first, but still leaves enough 'hot' water for myself.

Now as far as Legionella is concerned, that wasn't a consideration as virtually all water tanks in Thailand are in the temperature range to support bacterial growth, not just heated ones. The bacteria can be kept at bay with very low levels of continuous chlorination, but this is Thailand of course. Even though the water in our area is [occationally] treated, I chose to add bleach to my main water tank from time to time, just in case.

Hope this helps. Cheers.

   MrY

5 hours ago, thaiguzzi said:

Ah, another Chang afficianado...

Me, it's all i ever drink over here, beer wise.

Thanks. Not many good choices for a beer drinker in Thailand. For sure Red Horse is not bad, but I've never seen it in a bar/restaurant and quality seems to vary. I've only seem cans of it, are bottles even available? Singha? It really is not a bad beer but as an oldtimer I have too many Singovers in my past to even consider it. LEO? Bland-de-Bland. Heineken? Unfortunately where I work the Dutch brewed version is available, so the Thai version just makes me gag (it's better than the sugar cane sweetened crap of yesrs past). I'm just now sipping (the Vietnamese brewed) Carlsberg and pleasantly surprised. I wish it was available in more restaurants in  my area!

BTW thaiguzzi, that's a fine machine you got in your avatar.

Chang did indeed arrive in shops in the Winter of 95/96. It was developed with assistance from Carlsberg and was basically a version of Carlsberg Elephant Beer and 8% strong! First draft of the logo had 3 elephants, but was considered 'inauspicious' and was chanced to its current form before production started. It rapidly gained a reputation for causing fights and accidents and was quickly toned down to 7%. Singha at the time was 6% by volume.

Amazingly their 1st brewery had the potential to produce more beer than the combined consumption in Thailand at the time, even though Carlsberg only had a market share of well under 10%. What Chang did to ramp up production was to 'float' the price on the market by selling batches of beer to highest bidder. The price was thus fluctuating wildly (150-330 baht a case in 1996 for example) depending on the season and demand until about 1999. Chang market share soon peaked around 80% and and beer consumption (and alcohol consumption in general) in Thailand skyrocketed.

Chang wasn't initially very popular amongst foreigners, except in Chiang Mai backpacker circles, and was only offered in large bottles until 1998 (?). Chang still carries the Cheap Charlie reputation for any farang favouring it even though over the years there has been several other beer brands offered at or below its price point.

Subsequently Chang has gone through several other changes including further dropping the alcohol content to 6.4% abv, introducing several other versions, renaming the [not so] original version to Chang Classic, further dropping abv to 6%, pulling the other versions out of the market, again reducing alcohol by volume to 5%, changing ingredients (rice!), and further fine tuning abv to 5.2% (as advertised).

As for the taste opinions vary wildly but so did the product! Certainly in the early years (under Carlsberg supervision) it was far better quality than Singha at the time (pre-2000) and had after effects that were mostly related to ease of overconsumption (2 Chang equalled a bottle of wine in alcohol content) rather than poor quality or preservatives. I [personally] much favour the current product as I have matured a bit and do not need to seek a rush, not from beer anyway... I also like Tsingtao and Chinese Löwenbräu (100% rice), but that's just me. Had you asked me 10 years ago, I would have said the 7% version ( with Carlsberg yeast under Carlsberg quality control) was the best. YMMV.

These days Thailand is getting just about as 'sanuk' as South Korea, bordering on North Korea... (Pun Intended)

I guess this one didn't "acclimate" so well...

My friends husky in thailand likes to eat icecubes.

ours love them tooooooooooo,tell your freind to look up on google,FROSTY PAWS its ice cream for dogs,easy to make ours love it.

Nearly ALL dogs love ice cubes in hot weather. Just feed them slow enough not to arrive as chunks of ice in their stomach. I have two (ice loving) Spanish Mastiffs, and they are doing FINE in Thailand. How well Huskies fare is really just dependant on the master...

Demonization is what causes more harm than good. In no country is the view on alcohol use [and abuse] as distorted as in the U.S. of As.

As a long-term recovering alcoholic, I can tell you from the very start I drank for the effect. I liked the woozy switch off for my mind, and it seemed the panacea to all problems, just get drunk and the problems go away. Of course,I had to hit that rock-bottom, when the problems caused by my uncontrollable drinking caused living problems. Now, I would suggest, that 'normal' people don't drink this way. Additionally, 'normies' have something that tells them instinctively that they have absorbed too much alcohol and so stop, as they are poisoning their body. I believe the alcoholic doesn't have this warning system and just keeps drinking on the basis that if 1 or 2 drinks have a good effect - keep going, it must get better. Now, if this isn't an illness, I don't know what is.

The very basis of AA is step 1, powerless over alcohol, life becomes unmanageable. This reinforces the disease concept.If the OP can control drinking, all well and good. Just don't denigrate people like me who have the life answer in AA.

One of the biggest problems for the drinker seeking help is breaking through the denial element of what their drinking is doing, the 'reality' truth. So, what is the OP doing, reinforcing the rationalizations that avoid making the denial breakthrough? OK, go your own way, but don't push this kind of stuff that creates more harm than good.

Almost all tv members are not thai. Please explain why you have a god given right to live here and advise on what thailand should be doing. Like most western countries they want to stick there nose in a "direct" other countries. One big boy comes to mind.

Mr "I'm alright Jacksam" who apparently shows support for writing off the whole population of Thai people because expressing one's disdain for immoral governments is to "stick their nose in", here's something that's passed you by in all your years and travel: civilised people don't ignore human injustice just because it's not their country. This is not a remotely intelligent or moral stance in the face of fellow human beings suffering.

Africa right now.

Pol pot Cambodia

Armin Africia......

List is endless. Not financial gain for big players we can leave it to charity organizations.

I'm not hearing ONE word from the farang that live here with their thai squeeze. Maybe I'm mixing with wrong crowd. Every thai I mix with have one of 2 opinions. Couldn't give a flying f ### or like it better now. Actually think the new big boss is moving country in right direction.

Perhaps we could have elections and have another rice pledging scheme. Farang take your nonsense back to US primaries. Better circus

Ignore this obvious troll. After trying to read his illiterate rants, I am of the opinion that he believes Africa is one country!!

At least he should do some research.... Idi Amin was Ugandan, Einstein! Duh! He probably thinks Pol Pot was Cambodian cuisine

I am pretty sure the kinds of Thais he mixes with do indeed have two opinions:

1. Dumb farang

2. Cheap Charlie

Thank You for your contribution.

Taskin? Never heard of him. Google suggests some cricket player...

As we are on it : thainess is an anagram for=?

E-san this..?

In the ass

...or both, for thainess-thainess....

Honestly, I just wanted to post before some dick says 'sheitans'.

As we are on it : thainess is an anagram for=?

E-san this..?

Almost all tv members are not thai. Please explain why you have a god given right to live here and advise on what thailand should be doing. Like most western countries they want to stick there nose in a "direct" other countries. One big boy comes to mind.

I'm Thai and I'll call you out as a hypocrite. It's true that this is a forum aimed primarily at a farang user base, a place where farangs exchange ideas about the country where they spend their time. You criticise people for doing just that, so what on earth are you doing here?

Your thai? Umm clearly you don't talk to the working class thai about current political sphere in thailand. BTW eloquent post. Who wrote it for you?

Can somebody help me get south across the DMZ, please..?

Option 21: Buy an online train ticket on Malaysian State Railways from Hat Yai into Malaysia on www.ktmb.com.my for a minimum purchase of 200 MYR ($5). It is a legit onward ticket (unlike bus tickets that sometimes have a change of vehicle at border), and has worked for me for years.

200 MYR is not $5 but almost $47 (USD) (rate: 22/12/2015)

Oops. It's 20 Ringgit, about $4.7. A $47 dollar ticket wouldn't be exactly throwaway, would it...