Bredbury Blue

My experience is, in your early years here in Thailand you find the term farlang offensive, but after you've been here a while, and particularly if you have Thai spouse, Thai friends and Thai family, you no longer find it offensive and it feels natural to use the word farlang yourself.

And on maybe on your 5th annual renewal you should get more benefits for passing a spoken Thai language test...like do bi-annual renewals and not annual, na

I checked online and it was a huge sum for unpaid years at class 3. I'd been paying class 2 over the years I've been working here, so I wrote to them, not mentioning what it says online, and as i expected with working in Thailand, they wrote back quoting a very reasonable amount at class 2. I would therefore recommend the OP writing (or calling) to get an assessment, as the website assessment seems to assess on the basis of working in the UK, and act quickly as there is a 5 April 2025 cut off date for backpaying some of the earlier years.

So how has your thai progressed in the 6 months. Presumably you are now married (congrats if you are) so how did your speech go? Interested to know as a fellow student of thai.

Enjoying sitting in the garden and using the App to work out the bird sounds I hear so often but don't know which bird is singing it. Pleased to work out one sound I hear frequently is the coppersmith barbet. Must make the most monotonous call of all birds, as described by wiki The call is a loud rather metallic tuk…tuk…tuk (or tunk), reminiscent of a copper sheet being beaten, giving the bird its name. Repeated monotonously for long periods, starting with a subdued tuk and building up to an even volume and tempo, the latter varying from 108 to 121 per minute and can continue with as many as 204 notes.

Downloaded and tried out BirdNET App, used for identifying bird calls. Seems to work fine, and identified plenty of bird calls around my garden. https://birdnet.cornell.edu/

Now wouldn't it have just been easier to state which provinces instead of stating AQ repors (I have no idea what that even means).

Isaan is a huge area, and not one person posting mentions where the burning is going on.

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Still single?

Brilliant response. "Take the word 'Thai' out. It's a woman...No different than any other woman of the world. Culture, language, other people have nothing to do with it."

Simply I had enough of some of idiots on that forum.

Been away from home alot in recent times, hence no putting out food for the birds. Home for a month so recommenced putting scraps out. Within an hour a family of 4 mynahs visited (including 2 juveniles requiring to be fed by parents) and was soon back to having lots of regular bird visitors. 20241007_122436.mp4

Saipem Singapore or Siemens? The article reads Samsung E&A (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Petrofac South East Asia Pte. Ltd., and Saipem Singapore Pte. Ltd, Saipem has withdrawn from the UJV group, leaving behind only the name. Samsung and Petrofac are the only active members remaining.

I just completed this quiz. My Score 80/100 My Time 131 seconds  

If you live east side of Bangkok then have a visit to Metro Forest. Man-made forest by PTT, takes less than an hour to see, but the attraction is the stairs and walkways at treetop level (and above) so you are right in among the birds and get to see more than you normally would. Parking is on the street in front, just tell the yaam you're going in then no bother. Free to enter. Worth a visit. Sukhaphiban 2. https://maps.app.goo.gl/SNzqjfxhJCnf6hAJ6

Down in Klaeng area and visited Rayong Botanic Garden. It's more of wetland or swamp than a botanic garden. Visited back in April, loads of lotus on display. Today more water so that hired boats and kayaks can explore more area but less lotus. Plenty of birds and buffalo in the swamp areas to see. Free to visit. B600 hire boat for an hour. Kayak b100. Worth a visit. Images are from a large display they have of Rayong birds.

Thanks for all the comments/advice. Had a Fortuner for many years and earlier had a Ford pickup, both were decent. This is proving a tough decision to make. Been to the showrooms but not test driven yet. The Ford looks a nicer car, the Toyota will probably be easier to sell later.

About 10 years back, maybe less, drove Bkk - Nakhon Sawang - Mae Sot - Mae Sariang - MHS - Pai - CM - Sukhothai, spending a night or nights in each place. The 1st part of the Mae Sot to Mae Sariang road is very scenic in a river valley. It then turned away from the river and became quiet remote, but was a really enjoyable drive. We always regret arriving Mae Sariang late afternoon and leaving the next morning, as we should have spent 2 nights there.

This topic or similar has probably be posted before, apologies if it has, but... Considering buying either a new pickup 4x2 Double cab automatic, either a Ford Ranger XLS or its equivalent Toyota Revo Prerunner (something like the 2.4 Mid). Which would you recommend and why?

I did my 2year license at Sukhumvit 62 and my 5 year license in Bangpu. The colour blindness test is put your chin on a mark and state which of the 3 coloured lights you see to the side in your periphery vision. I struggled and quickly flicked my eyes to the side to try to get a better view. The examiners knew on both occasions I was doing this and told me off, in fact in Bangpu I was warned I would fail if I did it again. All I can say is they were very generous to pass me.

@MalcolmB Seems your simple posts in thai are not appreciated by others, not sure why as this is the Thai Language forum, but you're probably best practicing posting in thai script in http://www.thai-language.com/forums. Good luck.

I'm in Samut Prakarn, lots of pla salid fish fields right next to us, which brings lots of birds. For such a colourful bird they're not so easy to spot. Skittish, usually in the upper branches of our garden trees, but the current one thinks it's roadrunner.

Not sure why the long running thread 'Birds in your garden' was archived recently, but here's a follow on thread. Been seeing a lot of these birds in my garden recently. Have one that runs back and forwards on a path in the garden. Here's one from a few years ago who flew in to the glass pane and sadly didn't recover. 1653395347119.mp4

Thanks for that. In 20 years we've had one just once in our garden.