cliveshep

We have an emergency generator semi-permanently installed in the workshop - exhaust piped to outside of course - for those fairly regular occasions when we get the EGAT changing poles, or storms knock out the supply. This is because in this heat a freezer rapidly goes up in temperature and we got 2 big freezers and fridge to protect. Comments about "why" irrelevant - that is how we choose to live thanks! So, the gennie is petrol-engined and being used maybe 3 times a year the fuel gets a bit stale although we chuck in some fresh before starting, and it is a recoil pull-start 7hp motor - I got a bad back and although the gennie has probably only doe some 50 hours from new, new was 15 years ago in the UK. Bought originally to power water pump and jet wash to wash our boat on it's mooring in the UK once a year it came with us in 2015 to Thailand. It's about to get it's first service but is getting increasingly hard to start and doing my back no good at all. So - where can I get an ether spray to assist it and me is my question. Like the Australian "Start you B'stard" spray and as used all over the world except it seems here? Lazada either don't have it or I am asking the wrong questions. I figure it'll help it go back to it's original 2nd pull starting with luck. Service is change oil and clean plug only assuming it needs cleaning and take out all the fuel and bung it in my wife's car!

Why bother? If (I know this might be a big "if") you really trust your GF then simply let her buy it and register it in her name. You can drive it on a full current UK licence with an IDP from the UK Post Office if you are only here a few months a year. Otherwise take the Thai test and get a 2 yr licence renewed after 2 years to a 5 yr. I got a lorry, a car and a motor-bike (did have 2 bikes, sold one) and ALL are in my wife's name. Just saves complications when i die if I own nothing there is nothing for the Thai Government to try and steal was my thinking. Nothing stops me driving any of the vehicles although we got rear ended on our Innova and because a farang was driving the insurers tried to weasel out, in the end they did not. But the critical thing is - after 10 years I know i can fully trust my wife!

Certainly he should be strangled to death for such anti-British statements clearly designed to destroy sterling's value. So should those who appointed him, presumably the same Putin lovers (what else could they possibly be?) who appointed that other Canadian moron before him, Carney who was equally damaging to sterling on at least 2 occasions. What is wrong with the Ministers in my country to allow such destructive people to mouth off completely unchecked, never mind employing them in the first place?

Can someone explain why media outlets like Bangkok Post insist the baht is weakening when week on week it's exchange rate against the UK pound is going down. Surely the GBP isn't weakening too? The rate has been pathetic ever since Covid arrived, for one brief moment a year ago it touched 46 baht - £1, but now is continually slipping to 42,6 baht - £1 this morning. Given Thailand repeatedly borrows money to stay afloat, owes trillions, has no appreciable tourism industry any more, doesn't seem to export much according again to Bangkok Post and is pouring money into arms and diesel caps how is this possible? Even Boris Johnson's shenanigans hardly cause the £ to slip surely. What apart from a global recession and Putin's insane murderous land-grab is going on? The rate was falling before Putin, fell with a thump after Carnage Carney the then Canadian Governor of the BoE repeatedly told everyone is was a sh*t currency - they should have locked him up as he jumped on the anti-Brexit bandwagon. So in simple words - are we expecting further widening of the gap in the baht's favour?

Thus far only one person has answered my question, thanks for the4 info on Pattaya Zoo. Quite a lot of posts from the tree huggers I specifically asked not to bother to chime in, we know your views and feelings, I do not want to hear more of them. My son went to wash elephants in Chiang Mai's rivers, came back full of how elephant places abused elephants and how we must not ride on them as the poor things suffer from bad backs etc. Utter cobblers of course but that is what these so-called animal lovers tell them. Of course he was horrified when I told him that no one wants a redundant working animal or could look after it or afford to feed it so now tractors and winches have replaced elephants what did he suggest, apart from a bullet, be done with them? He had no answer, and none of the tree huggers can answer that question sensibly. "Elephant sanctuaries" they will say glibly, because that is what they have been told. Fine, who pays for those? Who buys the land, puts elephant-proof fences around it so they don't wander off and scoff some poor farmers crops? Who pays the men to care for them? Who pays the fodder bill day after day for 5o years or more? Ditto tiger sanctuaries where tourists don't visit or interact. Who pays? Funny really, the most vociferous animal rights proponents cannot answer that question. They'll glibly tell you endangered species must be protected, but cannot think of a way to do it that isn't going to cost an awful lot of money. So elephant football actually works, as does elephant artistry, the animals get some exercise, earn money which pays for their keep. Same with tigers, those 140 odd tigers in Kanchanaburi were bonded to the monks in a personal way, went for daily walks, were human-socialised. So maybe some cubs were killed and income derived from body parts - yes, it is a hateful business but tigers are NOT pussy cats, they eat a lot and that costs a lot. The monks managed to keep 140 odd tigers self-supporting and contented and no evidence of drugging. Along come do-gooders, government takes the cats away and 2/3 die in cramped cages. For me they were better off exploited for tourists, they got fed, walked, socialised and were not locked away in cramped quarters with no sort of life. And apart from some looney-toons pushing my buttons, is there anywhere else apart from Pattaya?

I've petted tigers, got a half grown cub chomping my hand one time but just mouthing really. Tigers don't like their ears scratched unlike dogs, one way to get mauled is to try it. But cats love being petted and if you were ever "owned" by a cat they leave you under no illusions that petting is your duty! Tigers too like petting but not the silly soft sort that tickles them! Mind you they like a juicy steak better!

A few years back they had 3 or 5 tigers in the Elephant place in Ayutthaya plus a handful of delightful cubs. My daughter and her bf are hoping to come over around Christmas time assuming Thailand Pass is abandoned along with those onerous Insurance requirements that are sending tourists elsewhere. Last time she came she was able to play with and bottle feed cubs and even cuddle/stroke an adult tiger both in Ayutthaya and also in the Safari Park and Open Zoo in Kanchanaburi. I am not inviting comments from the morons, muppets and tree-huggers here who got the Tiger Temple closed down and the tigers seized by the Government - whereupon 2/3 of them died. Well done guys - try thinking before shouting next time. As you can see I really have no patience with these people who would rather see tigers and former working elephants destroyed for economical reasons than allow them to be used to earn their food and keep with tourists. You can post your toxic comments elsewhere thanks. No, I would like to take my family somewhere hopefully not to far from Bkk where my wife and I live so they can have the experience of a lifetime not permitted in the over-regulated UK with it's "sniffy" H & S and others sticking their oar in stopping conker playing etc and banning peanuts (they probably got laws against peanuts too!). So please - anyone got any info on where to take my family to bottle feed cubs perhaps, or simply pose with beautiful big cats that we can reach in our old car and is affordably fairly close? Chiang Mai is simply far too far and we cannot afford the air fares being committed financially to other families we support. So preferably not further than Kanchanaburi. Thanks guys.

Don't worry about them not being legal tender, give them to a deserving cause. (I'll post my address for you lol.)

We are maybe 15-20 km NNE of central Bangkok and use Lazada a lot. We NEVER pay up front, only ever pay at the gate in cash or transfer by phone (my wife does it). FWIW we NEVER have courier problems, no goods no money and if deliveries are late it is someone else not us who suffers as we can always order from someone else. For expensive items my wife ALWAYS takes a picture of the package before opening and as she opens it so that any damage or missing part is instantly recorded for complaint. We often have something missing and always get it replaced, also anything wrong colour or size to order is likewise replaced. She is that strict even for cheap items if it's wrong the seller soon hears about it lol! We always get an SMS to my wife's phone and the delivery guy always calls 10-15 mins before he arrives, and we pay at gate. My wife gets little clear plastic bags from Big C and sticky labels, puts the correct money for every order into a plastic bag, sticks a label on saying how much and for what, and folds the bag. She has a little plastic box, puts all the order payments into that so it is easy even for me who speaks no Thai to grab a payment for whatever is being delivered and hand it to driver of either pick-up or motor-bike. It's a simple working system, make an order, get a plastic bag and label, put correct money in, put in box until delivery. I think your mistake is in being English I would guess, where the culture is pay up front. Here it is of great benefit to act like a Thai as Lazada is NOT Ebay or PayPal with all those buyer protections so paying COD is quite acceptable and prudent here..

Really? Where did you see that? Can you share please? If you got it right that means this entire thread can be deleted as irrelevant hahaha!

It's gnat's <deleted> and awful! Had it once or twice and found it disgusting! Plus even cheapest is not very cheap at all considering the country is supposed to grow tea. Coffee beans on the other hand at under 400 baht a kilo are cheap, also grown here. Prices in UK are the other way around, coffee expensive, tea cheap.

Now THAT is the most informative post so far, thank you. Think I'll get my kids to buy some tea bags and post them and see what happens.

Make your own sausages - we do and they're yummy plus the makings are not expensive. The only faff is cleaning the intestines if you buy animal ones but there are synthetic edible ones. We make our own bread, and pizza, mix our own taco and chilli-con spice mixes from ingredients we buy from Lazada, cost about a 10th of what Schwartz charged in the UK stores for a packet for 1/4 kg of our home made. We make our own Boursin cheese - dead easy to do BUT cannot get unmentionable tea bags! Don't want Twinings cat's <deleted>, and those that are available are at rip-off prices we simply won't pay. Not speaking Thai and they not speaking English is a pain, but the art of Mime is usually sufficient to get by.

In the UK I had a speed camera on the verge outside my house, there were 3 more in my road. Yorktown Road, Sandhurst, Berks by the Royal Military Academy. Going to work via M3 and M25 every day cameras on every gantry, police everywhere in patrol cars, people willing and waiting to be offended about something, rigid motoring laws, EU regs in my work and H & S destroying my industry, Thailand in all those freedoms is so much better. Sure the roads are often more hole than road, driving quality is appalling, police mostly conspicuous by their absence - by comparison with the UK that's a good thing. It's bloody hot, cost of living is going up, the girls are gorgeous, well, many of them and my wife is one of those, food is pretty good, and life is free of taxes and those miserable petty restrictions in almost every aspect of life in the UK, whether Local Council or central Government rules we were chronically over-regulated. Here - mostly no one gives a toss. The only downside - the lack of good old Tesco Red Label value tea-bags!

That would work BUT the cost of Royal Mail is enough to buy a Chinese Submarine (without engines of course) for Prayut! If I could get it sent by sea cheaply by Royal Mail without customs opening it then fine. Sea shipping is relatively cheap, it's using the Wright Brothers that is expensive!

Didn't notice that! It was the pain from my sanded genitals distracting me!

Possibly not but then we only shopped in Big C or Tesco (now Lotus's). Driving all over Bangkok to us is as attractive as sanding your genitals with an electric grinder - painful and pointless! To both of us nearest and most convenient and cheapest wins hands down over glamour every time. Basics are good! Sitting in traffic for 2 hours trying to find a speciality shop and then hunting for somewhere to park has no appeal.

That is what I read.

We are in Khlong Sam Wa 10km NNE of Minburi. Found several ads on Lazada for Ty-Phoo at fairly reasonable prices - every one out of stock. Those with UNREASONABLE prices got stock but apparently you don't get free gold pieces of eight with the orders. There is a massive mark-up, in the UK it's £5 a box of 480, if post by sea was available the price still beats anything of the ex-pat rip-off sellers here. I know Ty-Phoo and PG tips are pretty close in flavour to the cheap Red Label but I'm no connoisseur of teas, just a creature of habit. Tea that tastes like creosote does does not appeal so those 3 seem ok. Twinings and Tetley by comparison as like dirty water to me. I suspect Yorkshire tea falls into the creosote category but I have never actually tried it so am open to advice there. I'm English to the bone, and what's more ex construction so I am pretty fixed in my tea drinking ways. Dip your tin cup in a galvanised bucket on the fire and add milk and sugar was where I started, with Irish labourers fighting over whose bacon was written O'Reilly and whose written O'Leary because the indelible pencil had smudged on the rashers in the back ground. Twee designer brews like Twinings not allowed! Chuck a handful of black Co-op loose tea in the bucket and a piece of wood to attract the ash. Paying 3 times as much here hurts I'll tell you which is why I was thinking about getting my kids to ship some if possible!

We don't buy bread here - is is so light it might fly off the plate in a stiff breeze, has no bulk nor satisfies hunger. We instead make our own, a food processor and dough hook plus scales all we need. We googled a bakery supplies shop, found one in Minburi Market. We bought 4 large loaf tins (350 x 120 x 100 deep), we buy bread flour 300 baht a box of ten x 1 kg bags so half Big C's prices, yeast in packets 50 baht does probably 12 loaves, rolled oats 150 baht for 1kg. My simple recipe is 3 cups of warm water or 1/2 cup water and 3 cups warmed whole milk for softer bread, 1 kg flour, 200 grams rolled oats, 2 tablespoons oil, 4 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon dried yeast, 1 teaspoon salt. Extra yeast allows for humidity and pressure- thunderstorms in the offing - when bread simply will not rise properly. Mix, allow to double in size, knock down knead a little, cut in half, weigh to ensure both pieces the same, shape and place into greased bread tins and glazed with beaten egg. Allow to rise for as long as it takes to get to the top of the tin or higher (at least 1 hour), place into a hot oven, almost full on, for 22-25 minutes, turn out onto a rack. Meanwhile mix another kilo up and prove to knead and put into 2 other tins to rise so once 1st batch baked 2nd ready to go in. Cost is about 35 baht for everything, and a further 30 baht for the oats (good for cholesterol) so 2 large solid loaves cost just over 30 baht each and I tell you - buttered or toasted to die for!

I read that it is forbidden to import tea into Thailand but black tea-bags are not available here any more ever since the Traitor Tesco sold out to the heathen Lotus's. I drove round all the Tesco branches buying up their Red Label tea bags while still on the shelves but now - no more. So Tesco managed to sell their Red Label tea-bags from Ireland here, can I have some sourced in the UK and posted here for my personal use? Covid plus Prayut plus Anutin have scuppered my kids chances of coming anytime soon with tea bags in their luggage for Dad. I am 76, don't have a low-yield nuke device to deliver to Government house as a welcome gift to Prayut and his ghastly mates so have to live sort of within their rules! So - can I get some sent snail-mail (by ship cheaply?) to me, like maybe small packets of 480 bags, 1.5kg max without the customs thieves confiscating them? Apparently postage by sea is many times cheaper than by air from the UK and that makes it viable financially.

Been just N of Minburi (BKK) for 7 years, it isn't hotter I think than in any of the previous years but this year has proven to be a damn sight wetter. For weeks now the forecast has been almost 50% chances of daily thunderstorms and rain. Frankly, if rain in April is evidence of Global Warming, then please light more fires and increase it as it cleans the air, waters gardens, and generally cools things down! I hate the heat, so does my wife. We live here because Theresa May would not let her live in England once I retired and as far as TM is concerned God does NOT answer prayer! Bad cess to that woman. So I chose to sell up and leave to stay with my Thai wife who faithfully loves and cares for me. BUT we both hate the heat and humidity and how the climate destroys everything. We use fans during the day up to about 31C, but after that it's air-con from around 2.00pm to 8.00 or 9,00pm. So far used it about half of the days in the last month, we figure it costs us 85 baht a day in electricity to cool the ground floor lounge. We run both a fan and air-con in the bedroom for my 2 hour afternoon siesta and all night from around 9.00pm until around 7.00am. Even with 2 freezers and 1 fridge without the lounge AC the electric bills were around 2200baht a month, adding the lounge this last month or so it rose to 3400 baht but given how much more comfortable we were it was worth doing. So my opinion - temperatures pretty much the same year on year but this year lots of unseasonal rain.

I've been here, quite legally, for 7 years and can say hello and thank you in Thai and no more. I simply cannot be bothered at my age to learn a language that doesn't even use familiar written characters. But then my wife who is pretty smart now speaks English very well and does all necessary translation for me, the I.O's in Chang Wattana never speak to me anyway, all questions are always directed to her and she translates. Simple for both of us. I taught my wife to speak and read and write English, plus at her request sent her to school in England and she has papers attesting to her skill level. As for me I am a retired Project Manager and CEO of my own Project Management company and my skill set lies in Construction problem solving for which I was retained and employed and paid handsomely for many years, whereas my wife who is useless at such things, cannot add two plus three reliably, is highly competent in many other things and especially in problem solving. We are very happy the way we are, I nod and smile to people, most in our village know me by sight, always friendly waves and smiles so I must be doing something right. Even the refuse cart men slow down passing our house and shout "Hello" (in English) before driving on.

Last week had to go back to Chang Wattana for my extension stamp. Turned up at b9.10am, I went to get a queue ticket, my beloved who is young and leggy used those perfect legs to trot downstairs with ATM card, pin number (which she knows by heart anyway - I always forget it) and bank book. She used the Bangkok Bank machines to take out a couple of hundred baht, then updated the book, trotted across the hall and got the book photocopied and came back upstairs. Having used the wrong escalator silly darling she had to hoof it all across the ground floor Atrium. Meanwhile my number was L2 38 and the illuminated board was already showing L2 36, changing to L2 37 as I walked past it. Panic and tried to call beloved whose phone was in her bag, volume down, and she couldn't hear it. They called my number, very pretty girl - you know you can love some officers police lol - asked for bank book and copy, struggled to convey wife was downstairs, "give it to me when she comes said pretty girl." Found a seat and sat down and some 10 minutes later having gone to the toilet en-route my wife arrived, waved at me and shot off to find a seat ignoring frantic waves to stop. Caught her up eventually, arthritic knees notwithstanding, grabbed papers, went back to pretty police girl who said "ok, take a seat, will be 5 minutes.!" She lied.......................................!!!! It was 3 minutes and she called my name (I'm learning how Thais screw up the pronunciation of it by now) and passport returned with smile and serious explanation that it must be renewed by date stamped in red. Not wanting prison time for assault didn't kiss her, and we were done! 30 minutes from arrival to departure. So for once - full marks to Immigration for (a) fast service and (b) having a scrummy officer on duty! Outside the sun was in full force, got to car which was in the nearest possible spot to the entrance and the place was like Ascot Racecourse (Brits will understand this) on Royal Meeting Day. Cars parked for almost 1/2 mile on both sides of the road and down the middle and double parked in places In the scant 30 minutes we were there most of the ex-pat community had arrived it seems. So one of the two worst days of the year mitigated to some extent, my wife saying "she was pretty" and me "really, i didn't notice!" which is a wise man's stock answer even though never believed!

I had 2 plus 1 booster of Pfizer not Moderna all free and both on the telephone and from the nurses Pfizer boosters are still 6 monthly at Med Park. Whether that will change before my next booster is due is in the lap of the Gods or that <deleted> Anutin. I don't care, but paying for my wife meant that she would get Moderna, free Pfizer not available for her age group as she is a lot younger than I, like exactly half my age. Many Thais have been left out in the cold for a long time insofar as getting decent, or indeed any, jabs is concerned. They could get Sinovac if they queued up in crowded locations but given the short half-life who would block later options to get Moderna or Pfizer by accepting what might as well be salt water for all the good it is supposed to be.