thanchart

Would miss my Condo (which I really like in Pathum Thani which unfortunately is still not livable as water and electricity to the condo itself has not been restored. That is the excuse I have now to not move back, as my kids are coming and they cannot live without elect/water.

Don't blame you mate, the management are still pontificating about exactly how they are going to restore power and water having previously promised that it would all be sorted by mid-April (after mid-January and mid-February).

My two grand-daughters are over for a couple of weeks, the amount of water we use keeping them reasonably clean is amazing, we're re-filling our 5000 litre tanks every 3 days.

The industrial park have also build the workers accommodation and are constructing the concrete batching plant for the new flood wall right outside your window

Looks like I have to move out from there; my 2 older kids will be here next week and our intention is to find them an English-based school but the typical international schools are way too costly for us at this point. Fortunately I found what seems to be good school in Lad Prao , run by a PhD from Malaysia and he has a Filipina wife, and many of the teachers are Filipinos. The school offers s special price for Filipino kids (Pinay wife being the reason), wihich made it affordable. Lessons are 100% in English (Thai is not taught) and they use a lot of textbooks from Singapoire. More imporatntly I like the Headmaster's attitude to educating kids (my style). Seems good to me. Only problem is the school hardly has facilities for ECA so that has to be supplemented by us parents - fine by me as I soend a lot of time having fun with the kids. Guess Daddy has to be the one to ravel further to work but its a worthwhile sacrifice. We intend to move to that area.

The little 2 year old is so excitied,. asking to Sjype video with his 2 elder siblings everyday. Hehe my family will be complete once more....

Stil owe u one mate, and will do the necesary very soon, Working hard on that

The Japanese are probably behind this in a major way. Good news for sure though. Go Thailand! The dykes are necessary, even if they isolate the industrial estates. One poster here, at least, seems to forget that the double-whammy for Honda and others was that operations not only shut down, but tons of expensive equipment and inventory had to be completely replaced. The dykes protect against a repeat of the latter, even if they do create little islands no one can get to (temporarily).

Yep Yep Yep, Exactly the feeling of someone who might be inside those islands. To get to work if there is still electricity? well when there is a will, thre will be a way

Building islands which cannot be reached by workers or suppliers. What is the next great move by this impotent government.

Think Deeper. The amount of money & recovery time it would save by not having to replace flooded machines with new ones and production facilities destroyed again would already lead to a faster and less scostly recovery, unlike last year, Of course if electricity isis still avaiable to operate the factories, I am sure we will find a way to get to work. That is the sasy part compated to rescusign whateer stuff we can salbvae during lat year;s floods - by boats and hands.And I am speaking as one who was affected in the Pathum Thani factories.

Are u anywhere in there too?

Body builder using knife, what happened to the good ol' fist fight, copping it sweet and going to have beer,not sink into self pity and anger,go back and stab some one, silly bastards....read some where roid rage...to funny.

Hey are u kidding? This ain't no bodybuilder!

So does it mean there wont be any more fast track for Biz and 1st class passenger during rush hours ? but all planes from Europe usually arrived at the same period of time from 6 to 7am .... so , you pay your ticket more than double and you have to queue like anyone else ? how nice is that ..... Now they ask us to arrive earlier to avoid missing flight ... what about arriving one day in advance , stay at Novotel airport hotel..will be be enough time ? This is crazy ...

Hmmmm a vase of Throwing out the (clean) baby with the (dirty) bath water? High priority lanes for bvusines and 1st clss as far and these passengers help to make economy class fares more affordable.

What can be done is to make these lanes flexible (better trained counter staff who can make on the spot decisions) and be able to service econony class echek-ins whenever theor counter is empty (like what many major airlines in Signaporie Airport check-in do - SIA for sure does it)

I just love this SYSTEM theory. The SYSTEM is wrong so if I bypass the SYSTEM then I'm not doing anything wrong.

The benign corruption you allude to and which gets you off a traffic violation is the same system of corruption that is at the bottom of Thailand's abysmal record of People Trafficking, Wildlife Abuse, Political Murders, Business Related Murders and on a far larger front, but getting a lot less press time, the abuse of the rights of Thailand's stateless minorities and the poor.

A few hundred Baht in a Cop's back pocket is OK because it is cheap to you, and anyway hey ho you don't pay taxes here. Perhaps if you have some free time next week, take a day out to your nearest industrial area on Pay Day, you'll see these self same Cops milking factory workers as they head home with their month's pay.

Yep, your all right Jack.

can u give a description of what these "cops" do to the workers? I would really like to see if it is same/better/worse than what happends in Philippines where cops "extort" money from public transport drivers. And "manipulate" traffic lights to catch u beating a red light.

If you are working for a company, it would be good to give some details in the cover letter. if this is your case and u need a sample, I;ll be glad to send u a samp,le.

The Op made an agreement before getting in the tuk tuk, and was rightly annoyed at the outcome.

This has nothing to do with the money - it has everything to do with feeling cheated.

There is no mistake about this situation, the tuk tuk driver cheated the Op out of 50 baht. Yes, only 50 baht, big deal right? But I'm sure we all have our principles.

If faced with the same circumstances I bring into question the serenity even the most imperturbable of characters.

The simple difference is perhaps that these characters ‘let the issue go’ and won’t post about it.

Well, some should thank the Op for posting this as its given many ‘members’ (and the double entendre is valid in this case) to bully him.

This has nothing to do with being a cheap Charlie or considering what these poor tuk tuk drivers live on, it is simply about principle. No one likes to be cheated.

For this very reason, I always aim to carry change. Taxi's all over Thailand (and other countries) try the no change game too.

I’m sure that if a more established member posted a similar thread there would not be the same number of responses attempting to ridicule a new member.

Let me offer a diiferent point of view. I am not trying to protect the Tuk-tuk drivers but I think it is also a problem of the OP assumed that the fare quoted was for per ride and not per person. Tuk tuk would not be sure that the passenger is unaware (maybe hope he is unaware?). I myself have sure I confirm thta the price quoted is NOT for per passenger, esp when it seemjs cheap. And several times the driver clarified it is for per passenger so I had the choice of accepting, negotiating or take another.

By the way, the tricycle (much less comfortable than tuk tuk) drivers in Philippines try the same tactics almost all the time too - esp with foreigners but sometimes even with the locals. Friom a mileage basis, the tricycle is the most expensive form of publci transport - I gues same for tuk tuk too

This. I've never understood the appeal of tuktuks. They can't beat the traffic like motorbike taxis, and they are neither as comfortable nor metered like regular taxis.

i mean, what is the point ?

Other then the 1st couple of times we took tuk-tuk for the sake of novelty for my Filipina wife and baby, there is no poin to do so, unless....

You do not have a truck/pickup and needs to tansport something like a refrigertator or a sofa and did not want to wait for the delivery schedule of the store. This is when the tuk-tuk comes into a class of its own. Even when the product is too big to get inside the tuk-tuk, the driver can find a way.

• ref was tied to the back where there was a collapsible ledge that could be let down to support the ref.
  
• Sofa was tied on top of the roof
  

Prety handy, I must say and not bad for 120-150baht.

Are u talking a loan or pay cash? I needed the work permit for a loan to buy a scooter but did not have to have a Thai guarantor. The scooter comoany boss decude to waive it andmaybe his compmay took the risk instead. Maybe he was the guarantor in place.

If she really is fearless, why haven't we ever seen her in an in-depth interview (not just a 5-minute one in which she can recite some key words) or debate?

Just very recently I watched Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim participate in a long interview on Thai PBS which covered many topics, including controversies relating to the multiple charges of sodomy against him. He did a good job in answering the questions and explaining his points of view.

while I am not partoicularly a fan of Yingluck, we must realized she is very new to Politics while Anwar (whom I have respect for) is an old hand and was at one point even on course to be the next Prime Minister after serving lng years under Mahahtir. Surely this cannot be an apple to apple comparison?

I would suggest if one must judge, do it after the next flood season. Only then will there be concrete measuremeent as to wherher she has learnt from the last experience. Put yrself in her shoes - do u seriously believe you would be able do much beeter?

Do you know Anwar when he was a young poltician? He was radical and even threaten to jump onto the railway track at an oncoming train to protest at that time the visit of the Israeli PM to Signapore? That was the affairs of another coutnry! Whether it was out of the anger at heat of the monent or a show, one will ever know (but it was election time . But certainly he did mature over time (many years) to earn my respect/

The one thing I find odd about protecting the estates is the fact that they wouldn't be able to produce anything anyway. No trucks would be able to bring supplies in or products out. And, those employees wouldn't have homes to live in and would probably have to flee the area. I suppose it would protect the expensive machinery in the estates so that, once the flood waters recede, they could resume work. However, if I was a foreign investor I would see these walls as a small bandage for a gaping wound.

Do you think that companies which had resumed operations after the flooding would rebuild in the same way tney had done beorfe the floods? I think not (well, at least my company is not). The question is more would water get into the park and would there still be electricity (depends on water level)?.

There are ways and means to get people into the park if they are still operational; perhaps the same way we got materials out of the warehouses during the floods. Maybe there may be no more floating markets for a while, amongsts others. Many of my colleages still came to work (at another dry location) even though their homes wrere flooded. Their biggest worry was not their homes, but will they still have a job? For many in my company, we were lucky; the company survived the floods and are on the way to recovery, leaner but will be stronger. And mroe prepared for the next round, and we hope we will pass thru, God willing.

You sound very new to Thailand.

Getting Thais to work or even just turn up for work every day is a challenge.

I beg to differ. There are many different levels of Thai workers (as in most countries), I've yet to see this problem in office exetutives and staff, or the engineering level in the production after 5 months here. Operators maybe (due to sometimes tight employment situiation or otherwise) but I don;t thiink the OP is talking only of that level. Try China, this nighttmare may be worse. We have plants in both places and that's our experience.

Extract from Oringal Article:

Parinya Sirisarakarn, a member of the National Human Rights Commission, questioned the government's plan to buy tablets from China, saying he was worried about product quality and whether the government had already prepared facilities for the use of tablets at schools.

"If your classroom has 50 students, it must have 50 electric outlets," he said.

IMHO, this guy is not qualified to commeht. He obviously have no idea how a tablet works or that it does not have to be plugged into the wall socket during usage.

While I do see some obvious issues and some less obvious problems in this PC Tablet thingy, it is really sad to sere most who made public comments do so from a lack of knowledge and obviously basing on their experences of the good old times of what a computer used to be. Maybe the PC XT ?(my 1st PC)

I avoid anything made in China ever since I purchased that authentic (made in China) Aussie boomerang from a souvenir shop in Melbourne, the bloody thing never came back. Buyer beware on Chinese manufactured goods anyone remember the baby formular incident? If they can't get thier food products rights I wouldn't trust thier technology. (my Grandfather is Chinese)

Don;t throw the Clean baby out with the Dirty bath water. There are also good chinese manufacturers, and l a ot have set sights on quality. Bu then there are also many low-end ones who manufacture to meet yr price. Its a matter of knowing enough to know what to buy, what goes into the design (the main processor maker often has a reference design that is modified/stripped down into the final product the company makes), and at what price is worth it.

Yes the 30 day 'under consideration' stamp is normal for your class of extension.

A lot of Immigration Departments do not have the final say on the extension, so you have to submit two sets of paperwork which they check are correct then forward to the Area Immigration Head Office for final approval - go back a little before the one month is up then you will then all hopefully get the remaining 11 months of your one year extension.

The dependant's extension (777/2551 Clause 2.20) is contingent on your having a one year extension - however I presume that they also gave your wife and child a 30 day 'under consideration' extension at the same time as yours?

Yes I got the full extension together with my family. Actuallly the Imirration took a few days lobnger to complete the processing and it was fortunate HR called them ti check They promised to call us when it i ready and they did.

Now my next step is to bring my 2 step-kids here on Dependents Visa also to join their little brither as they missed each other so,much (and my wife and I too). I;ve managed to locate a reasonably priced school for the 2 kids (100% English language instruction and many of the teachers are filipinos) and usimg recognized curriculum from UK and also US, plus many of subject books are actually from Singapre (very high quality stuff - I know as I grew up there). The school has basic facitlities (unklike a full fledge schoiol abnd would not be able to proved much ECA activities but that is something we can supplement as parents.

I will have to move nearer to the school in Lad Prao area. Would miss my Condo (which I really like in Pathum Thani which unfortunately is still not livable as water and electricity to the condo itself has not been restored. That is the excuse I have now to not move back, as my kids are coming and they cannot live without elect/water.

What a boring article. But interesting to see a completely different take on bargirls in general than the usually we read on TV. Such as the quote below from the article from an ex bar girl.

"No life is good life, it just depends on what you make of it," she says in her broken English. Her husband left her two years after her second child was born. "In Thailand, women do no fear being alone, we know that is the reality. I think my husband had married me for the money I had," Julia observes stoically.

http://www.asiasenti...4281&Itemid=392

A man marrying a bargirl for money? not vice versa? very odd.

As it is, you have seen only 1 part of life. I see this a lot even in Philippines, where in some segments of their society , some of their men are absolutely useless - lazy and drink most of the tine. How in the world they can ever convinced some women to "marry" them is a wonder. Not really married, but live-in, and at the woman's house too. What's worse, little or young step-daughters got abuse

very often. It;s'probably happening here too.

The government would have been hoping that the decrees were struck down by the courts, so they could blame their failures on the opposition. Now who will they blame?

why do u say this? It;s kind of Damned if U do and Damned of U Don't is it not?

1st they were already guiltly of corruption when they wanted to do the Public Debt transfer. Now that ot got passed, it's now ca case of they wished they hadn't done it because they have no one else to blame.

Really why not try to put up a realsitc counter proposal and see if it make sense.If it is so great, you might just be invited for a hearing by the PM - what a way to controbute to this country you call home them. They should then offer you citizenship on a silver platter

I'm a type 2 diabetic and during my 10 years in Thailand have always made do with the 3ml disposable Novopen Mixtard 30 plastic pen devices or the NovoMix 3ml mixtard 30 disposable glass cartridges...I still have a 10ml vial of mixtard 30 that I bought in saudi, expires on 06-2012...

my feeling is that one has to tool up with regard to what's available whenever one is...I had to make do with Humulin vials in HCMC in Vietnam 6 years ago...the Novopen products were only available at the Franco-VN hospital outside of town...

I was in the UK once to visit my son and needed insulin and was told that I needed a prescription from a doctor to buy (how does one 'substance abuse' insulin?) and it cost about 100 pounds and considerable hassle to obtain a doctor's script to get what I needed...in most civilized places (like in the Middle East and in SE Asia) insulin is available OTC...

The reason you need prescription is simple, just imagine what could happen if you are using insulin incorrectly ie injecting 300U at once

By the way, before I started on the pump I was using mixtard 30, I was in Phuket a short while and ran out of supplies - I obtained a 10ml Vial in Phuket (Patong Hospital ph: 076-342633-4)

While the need for a prescription is reasonable, does anyone knows of a hospital in BKK that prescribes repeat prescription - one that be used to purchse the insulin repeatedly? The strange thing about Thailand is one has to queue to see a doictor, go thriu alll the hassle the nurses put you through with the standard BP measurement and weight taking, asking the same questions each month,m and then u get to see a General Practitioner part time doctor (who has no cluse as to yr history) just to tell him/her what to write for the presctiption. Its like a routine way to collect some monies trhough non-value-added services that are justg a waste of time.

Granted its fair if there is an expirty dte for a prescription,. but it is such wa waste of money and especially time having to go to the hospial to repeat the same thing ecah time.

Was at the Chaengwattan Immigration on Thursday and saw a Mazda 2 on display in there. I asked and was told that downpayment is 10%; including for foreigner (from ASEAN). I double checked and was told that again.. Sounds good to me

Any one come across a similar offer

Kind of misleading touting the production of hard drives and cars as Thai accomplishments. Seagate and Western Digital are US companies, who came over here to take advantage of low labor costs -unskilled labor- then trained staff to do the production. Likewise, Toyota, Honda, etc., are the brains, while under-educated Thais do the heavy lifting (This, unfortunately, applies to Japanese car production in the US also).

Do you know what goes behind produdction of HDD? It is not as simple as you seem to put it. 20-odd years ago, the star location for Seagate was in Singapore - they had really nice a large factory near my ex-home, producing the most HDD in the world. Then came a time when Seagate decided a cheaper place was needed and it shifted most of its prodiction to Thialand. That move failed and soon much of the HDD models were back in Singapore. There was just not enough skilled workkers in Thai;and to make things happen.

Now that seems to have changed - as Singapore has lost that top spot to Thailand. it tells me that the workers in Seagate Thailand has reached a certain level of skills to take over the top spot from Singapore.

There are some things happening in Thailand these days - may be not bleeding edge as yet, but nevertheless high-tech enough. You probably do';t know about (any of) these? I know some, as I am involved.

While I fully support the usage of Educational Courseware on tablets, I do not think it is a good idea at Pthaom 1 (even higher grades) to simply pass the tablets to the kids without supervision.What would be better is the way it was done durng the pilot testing done (where I was part of) in another ASEAN country.

In that pilot, the tablets stayed in the school, and handed out in the classroom during the periods dedicated to e-Learning. The kids were using the tablets under the guidance of the teacher, and Internet connection was not even in use. WiFi connection was used to intereact with the Server in the school to upload results (courseware was stored locally to reduce traffic)

It was observed during the oukits that the kdis love this period of learning so much that teachers start to use this periid as a incenttive for the kids to behave bettter and work harder. Bad behabviour led to less time and god led to more time ion the tablets. The results spoke for itself - a 30% increase in the classes with lowest grades (versus a test group w/o the usage of the tablets). Kidx intrbviewed on TV said they love the periods as it was like playing computer games and tehy learnt and remember bettrer and can corrrect themselves till they get it rigght - sort if a leveling meachnism that give the slower kids an equ;l caacne to learn if they are willing to put in the effort.

A native Chinese speaker has an edge learning Thai. The tonal thing.

While I agree that he/she has an edge, effort still has to be made to speak with the corrent diction (as the Thais call it - puut chaat - speak with accurate tones/diction).

Where I work, there are 4 Asians (out of more foreigners) who can speak Thai.

1. A Native Chinese who as been in Thailand for 2 years (studied Masters in Chulalankong Uni) and now working - His vocabulary is stronger than mine but his diction not as clear (but better than typical farang's who can speak Thai). He did not focus on spaeking accurately while he was learning and learnt speaking with classmates.
   
2. Me - a Chinese (but not from China) and my Chinese language not considered good (esp acedemically) but when I learnt Thai (very much on my own), I focus a lot on diction/pronunciation . Since I arrived 4 months ago, most Thais i spoke to consider that I spoke acdurately. I've never lived in Thailand and only visited a few times a year for maxumun 2 weeks per visit. Inerestingly both the person above and I learned from the same teaching material - Thai for Beginners. I was very serious in using the book. Learned to read and write as well ,though did not have chance to progress to Advenced level and forgotren most of it as I l lived in Philippines for 6 years and did not meet even a single Thai there, let alone speak, read and write
   
3. The 3rd is a native Filipino who has been here for 2 yers with his Filipina wife. He can speak some Thai but not so good with the tones and depends mostly on English,
   
4. The 34th person is a also native Filipino who has been here for 7 yers and married a Thai wife. He is amazing - diction/tone is perfect and speaks fluently just like a Thai. He told me his wife drilled him into speaking and pronoucing propertly. Well her effforts paid off. He is my inspiration .so to speak. If he can read and write like he can speak, he can pass off as a Thai!
   

Yes, I actually found Thai easier to learn compared to Chinese (and I am one). The nice thinbg about Thai is that has vowels and consonanats and that makes reading far easier. At least one can sound out the word even if you mnay not recognize it at first, and maybe after reading, you remember it, It;s been 6 years since I last spoke/read/type Thai but it is slowly coming back after 4 months here. Too bad English is mainly spoken in the office. or I would have been forced to pick up faster. Teaching my Filipina wife the language helps a bit.

For Chinese language, that is far harder, if you don;lt knwo the word, its hard to be able to sound it out.

r

Curious if you know if the companies have any kind of flood insurance. Even in the US in non-flood areas (even those which are next to impossible to flood) private insurers will not insure for flooding, it goes through a government program that regardless of loss will only pay a maximum of $250,000 for homes and $500,000 for commercial property. This may sound like a lot but it really isn't when you consider costs in many places in the USA. And if you reside in a flood risk area it is near impossible to get insurance without having to pay outrageous rates.

I can only speak for the company I am in,. We were insured 100% from the losses as Mgt was wise enough to buy "1st class" insurance. We had been told by our machines suppliers (some millions of baht each) that the equipment can only be refurbished if they had not beeen submerged > 1 week, so the insurance surveyors had told us to write off literally 100% of those equipment and materials underwater. What I do not know is whether we will get similar coverage from now on.

So we are mot taking chances and from now. all expensive and unmovable equipment will be on higher levels and unless the flood if it comes, is significantly higher than last year's level, we can manage the risk. Only low cost stuff will be at the ground level, and I am even thinking we should turn that level into recreational areas. For the size of the 2 factories we have in that Ind Park, that would be quite sizable area we can use 555

The main reason why we could recover fast was decisions were made internally w/o waiting for lengthy HQ response, which I suspect will be the case for almost all overseas companies and also we did not even bother to wait for insurance payouts. What was important was the need to restore customer confidence and let customer feel we can recover to previous production levels within a short time, and we managed to do it. Now we are taking the chance to reengineer the way the company works, that this is an exciting time.