sean in udon

It's the same old story all over Thailand. They love to talk about what's wrong, point the finger of blame at other authorities, but nothing ever gets done. Samui, like Phuket which has turned into a toxic cesspit, will continue down this road as long as the good old MONEY keeps rolling in from tourism.

I've traveled the world but few places compare to Thailand as being nothing short of a garbage dump. Look at the mentality ... I've seen Thais stand not a foot from a trash can and yet the prefer to throw their garbage on the ground.

In my days on Phuket it was nothing unusual to see rats crawling all over the place, especially in restaurants in the Town.

I would say that they ought to be ashamed of themselves but you can't shame the ignorant and uneducated. Take a walk anywhere in Thailand and there are dogs shitting, people throwing garbage on the floor, rats running around restaurant tables ... any they have the audacity to call Thailand a high class tourist destination ... it's cleaner in my toilet and by a remarkably long way.

It's a shame and another reason I left ... I just didn't consider living in a shit hole as a nice place to live but I guess there are some that like it that way.

One of the things that used to hack me off about the UK was seeing people chuck litter on the ground. I've seen plenty of people walk out of a local general store with their purchase, open and chuck the wrapper on the floor. There's a bin right in front of them.

Imo, ignorance is one of the UK's biggest areas of growth.

Agree that it's a problem in Thailand as well, but where can you completely escape from ignorance?

Hit Kutchap, Udon Thani good and hard about 17:00. 30/40 minutes of hard rain and strong winds.

Roofs damaged or taken off, trees blown over, snapped, etc.

And no power (back on at 20:00)

No fore play here, straight in with wam bam.

Rain just started again (20:45). Don't want those winds again, I can live with the rain.

Had a quick drive round about 6pm, locals are clearing up and starting repairs....and smiling. Was surprisingly pleasant to see those smiles.

As far as I'm aware, no one hurt locally, thankfully.

Edit: Thanks for the link Shiver. Not read Viz in years.

Fits in perfectly with this thread

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?/topic/817166-Thailand-is-the-Most-Religious-Country-in-the-World

One day, sooner of later a little bit of respect will have to be paid to the farangs who live in Thailand and spend more money than the majority of Thais.

Will it?

I share your scepticism Happy Grumpy. Can't see any respect coming our way in my lifetime. And I reckon I've got at least a couple of decades left in me (as long as I avoid high buildings in Pattaya, Bangkok and Phuket).

I'm sorry, but I don't believe this story. Makes no sense. So the city planners are sitting around trying to figure out where the farang houses are so that the street won't be repaired at exactly those locations? And the other owners who are Thai? How about others who drive on those streets? Surely would include everyone. You guys shouldn't be so gullible.

You haven't really lived here long have you. This is very believable. When falang live in a basically rural area, EVERYONE knows who the falang are and where they live. There is no conscious thought that has to go into. You could almost say it's done instinctively and by silent consensus.

You also have no imagination how it could be that only falang live on and use this one road. Give it just a tiny, weensy bit of thought.

Have no experience of the 'farang can pay' road repair situation.

Completely agree with the 'locals know where farang live' situation.

Any time I drive with the Thai gf, she can tell me which houses are 'owned' by farangs. And I would say 50% of the time she knows the nationality of the farang (local to our village, it's 100%).

Not been here very long when she first made me aware of this knowledge (we were about 7km from home and still I was getting reports 'farang house', 'farang house').

I was gobsmacked. I've since met quite a few and she was spot on.

And yes, we are in a rural area.

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It should be illegal to have the girls of Thailand with all their beauty and sexy legs to have such small brains to accompany such a fine specimen.

And that my friend is about the only reason any Thai girl would want to spend any more than five minutes of her precious life with you. If she had an incredibly small brain.

I love beautiful Thai women with small brains. They spend more than five minutes of their precious life with me, tell me how hansum I am and .......well, I'm very relaxed and happy in their company. Simple pleasures

In reality, some of them haven't got small brains. I've been impressed with the level of conversation I've had with some Issan 'working' girls. Emphasis on 'some'.

I reckon the only small brain is your my friend. You aint superior just another cog in a massive wheel

I have quite a large brain - in my pants.

"You aint superior just another cog in a massive wheel"

As is true for all of us. Or the perspective I use, 'just a grain of sand'.

It should be illegal to have the girls of Thailand with all their beauty and sexy legs to have such small brains to accompany such a fine specimen.

And that my friend is about the only reason any Thai girl would want to spend any more than five minutes of her precious life with you. If she had an incredibly small brain.

I love beautiful Thai women with small brains. They spend more than five minutes of their precious life with me, tell me how hansum I am and .......well, I'm very relaxed and happy in their company. Simple pleasures

In reality, some of them haven't got small brains. I've been impressed with the level of conversation I've had with some Issan 'working' girls. Emphasis on 'some'.

There will be some individual examples in Ukraine or Sweden etc who fit the accepted spec for beautiful - but they will be exceptions. I think Thailand is tough to beat for a generally high standard of good looking girls.

If you sat in a mall or street-side coffee shop in Thailand I bet you'd not need to wait for more than 5 minutes before seeing a really pretty girl walk by.

Do the same in most other countries and you'd need to get few cups of coffee and a cream bun before you saw a really nice girl walk by.

Exhibit A Amarin Mall, Bangkok .....

Street 3.jpg

In the UK, I'm sure there wouldn't be a shortage of girls eating cream buns in the vicinity, while you were waiting for a really nice girl to walk by.

. . . until they reach age 30 then downhill at an incredible rate.

Not sure that I can agree here. Thai women seem to age very well compared to those in the West.

+1

They could also say tax is abolished. They will have no say in the next government / coalition.

Was thinking on similar lines. They might as well throw in free flights to the moon. Got as much chance forming a government as the Monster Raving Loony Party.

Have a read of their 2010 manifesto-quite refreshing.

http://www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/ge10/man/parties/OMRL.html

This reminds me. I need to get down to the Temple and have the Monk pick my lottery numbers.

Might me more time efficient to go to the lottery seller and ask one of the monks buying tickets to pick the numbers for you.

. . . few of the rich people who buy the luxury goods pay much tax, if any at all. They contribute as little as they can to society and prefer to spend their not-so-hard-earned money on Dior dresses rather than helping society move forward and increasing the quality for all involved

Pure BS from yet another clueless farang talking on matters he knows nothing about from the best vantage point he knows . . . his reclining armchair

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-16260782

In terms of percentage of population, Thailand was the most generous, with 85% of Thais making regular charitable contributions.

I wonder if all those who give are poor.

A good percentage of those who give are poor.

Having had a good look at the Charities Aid Foundation's (CAF) World Giving Index website (the source of the 85% statistic), the figure for 2014 is down to 77%.

My personal experience of Thais, in Issan, does not involve giving to any charitable organisations. They simply can't afford it.

However, the CAF criteria includes giving to temples and monks. So yes, poor people do regularly give food and money to the monks and temples and therefore, Thailand scores highly.

To quote from futureworldgiving.org (they appear to be linked with CAF):

"The 2014 World Giving Index has found that a larger proportion of Burmese people give money to charity every month than any other country on earth – by far."

Burma is number one in the world! Again based on donations (food and monetary) to monks and temples.

Bit of a reality check for those who might think 85% of Thais are giving to charities. IMO churches, religious organisations, temples, etc are not charities. And "buying" merit is not a charitable donation.

Any guesses at what the percentage might be if we take the temples and monks out of the equation?

Managed to get some fruit from the ground floor shops in Central Plaza, Udon Thani, yesterday.

Many thanks to exterminator and DumbFalang for their help.

Thanks for the pics and the info.

Spoke to one of the gf's mates today and she says Skyfall closed for 10 days.

Unfortunately I failed to ask if that was 10 days from today or from the incident.

And for those that don't have the time:

However, Yaowapa Pibulpol, chief of the Phuket Provincial Employment Office, the government office established to specifically regulate and administer employment law, maintained that the wording does not allow officers to apply the law beyond its intended scope.

“Foreigners cannot perform any work – in the true sense of the word – without a work permit. And they may only perform the work listed in the work permit and only at the place of work listed in the permit.

“But that doesn’t mean they can’t cook their own meals, clean their own houses or tend to their own gardens. Of course they can, but as soon as they are hired or profit by doing any of these things, they are ‘working’,” she said.

“And any foreigners who want to build their own boats on their own time, using their own skills and experience, for their own personal use are not breaking the law. They can do this, but they cannot build a boat so they can sell it later on. That would be profiting from the work,” Ms Yaowapa added.

I wonder how long before someone says "but that's Phuket. Maybe it's not the same in (insert region of Thailand here)".

Feel free to come to BKK at the special 'Deporting of Aliens Growing Their Own Food' terminal and say "I told you so" as we all get deported.

I hear the terminal is very busy this year

Bit of light reading for all those that keep saying 'you need a work permit to do anything'

http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket-news/Special-Report-Permission-to-function-in-Phuket/22548

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?/topic/752693-Work-Permit-needed-for-a-hobby%3F

Sent from my iPhone

To add to blitzfix's outside report, I can add something of an inside report. The gf has a sister and 3 friends who work at Skyfall.

Problems started when the Pole tried to bring his own vodka bottle into the bar.

I'm sure many of us have experienced gogo bars and know that when you sit with a girl/girls and buy a few drinks, things can get quite 'friendly'. Well, the already drunk Polish headliner apparently skipped the buying drinks and just started getting 'friendly' with the girls, which wasn't welcome and he was asked to leave.

It would appear he was being a first class a-hole and sounds like he got what he deserved. Up to the point he was assaulted with a weapon.

Thai Travel Bug's post carries some common sense (survival) information, but it would be lost on most of the idiots (worldwide) that drink and become bigger idiots.

12 years of 'bouncing' taught me that for every unit of alcohol consumed a comparable unit of logic/common sense is lost. When some of the morons enter a club with little grey matter functioning, it's only a matter of time...

At least nobody died on this occasion.

exterminator, thanks for the info.

Your initial growing success followed by disappointment doesn't bode well for me.

When is the chayote in season? If I'm unable to find anything closer, the 2 hour drive to Loei is on the cards.

Don't want to ruffle any feathers, so please don't take offence.

Read the thread and had a good chuckle about the 'female fighting cocks' debate.

And I got to learn about diatomaceous earth.

Thanks to everybody who contributed.

sayongte ซายองเต้ or fak maeo ฟักแม้ว

Have been reading about this and would like to get hold of some.

It would appear to be a good food source for animals (currently have ducks and chickens, hopefully pigs later this year) and humans. It's fast growing and I would like to create a 'wall' that is natural, rather than looking at man made materials.

Tried the local supermarkets (hoping to get the fruit) and plant suppliers (for a plant). Then asked around the big supermarkets and a few of the plant suppliers in Udon Thani. It doesn't seem to be very popular around here, as I've come up empty (except for Big C - they had some leaves in a mixed veg pack). I'm not even sure when the fruit is in season.

Can anybody suggest a supplier for the plant or fruit? It does get a bit frustrating hearing 'mai mee' everywhere you go. And confirm that my research regarding food for animals is correct?

Thanks in advance.

Hi RichCor.

Thanks for your interest.

Been away for a couple of days, so a little delay in responding.

Definitely the MikroTik and I'm inclined to agree with your user/admin access - me being stuck on the lower level.

Have put a few hours in trawling forums and the net. Reached a sticking point and not sure how to proceed. Although your initial suggestion of using an outside service may now be worth pursuing. Any suggestions of where to look for an education in 'outside services'?

Try 1.4.181.57

My current IP address.

I could be wrong but I thought on suicide - insurance companies are not paying.

When they went through the policy details, they told me about the year 'wait' and I expressed my surprise that suicide was covered.

Took the.cover out about 4 years ago and I don't live in a condo. Hopefully, it won't be needed.

Covers me worldwide as well. I checked before moving here.

Edit - On reflection, perhaps telling the Thai gf about this may not have been a good idea. Only time will tell.

IMHO, pleased that you're having some success. Tech stuff is great until you hit a speed bump like this.

I wonder if the '@' was a typo or has some reference, like region or equipment.

My routerboard model is SXT5nDr2.