BoganInParasite

Upper Nan province, no rain since early October except for an unexpected (and unforecast) very heavy hour or two long downpour one morning in mid-January. But the cooler mornings have persisted to now and the days have been mild. Overnight and maximum temps look to be going up 3-5 degrees from next week. Particularly bad air this year though.

2 hours ago, Tropposurfer said:

hahaha ????????????????

Reminds me of the good old days of cowboys and corruption in Queensland with the long time Premier Joh Bjekle-Peterson. His mate Russ Hinze was Minister for Roads and Transport I think it was.

He owned, built a massive gravel and aggregate business empire of the back of huge (all) the contracts to supply the Queensland Government with every stone and every ton of sand used to build roads, railways, etc across the state.

After he became Minister his small business exploded!

He became a multi-millionaire of of the back of those contracts. 

He yelled loudly as did Peterson that there was; 'No conflict iof interest to se here.' lol ???? Priceless!

Recall at one stage Hinze was referred to as the minister for everything. He collected a few of them, most concurrently.

This is my fourth smoke season in Pua, northern Nan province. This is the earliest I've seen really bad air here with several days already of not being able to see the other side of a narrow valley. Yesterday it was possible to see the airborne haze above the road only 25 meters from our house. The Nan valley seems less impacted than most of the rest of northern Thailand and even with our recent bad air I can see other parts of northern Thailand with monitoring station readings 2-3 worse than our nearby stations. The mind boggles. Still we have not yet had a day like a couple of years ago when on a drive to Nan on the 101 the visibility was about 200 meters and the whole sky was a glowing dull yellow.

We get a lot of recyclables because of the wife's homestay. Prior to COVID we would rock up to the local recycler about every two months and get 30-60 baht for the load. Then a couple of kilometers up the road the wife would blow it on fried banana. Then during COVID we saw the recycler was accumulating massively because for a time they could not transport it across provinces and down to Bangkok. No doubt their cash flow was suffering as well. So we started just giving it to them and have continued to do so. When they spot us backing in it is all hands on deck and the two folks I've come to understand are the husband and wife owners are all thankyous and wais. Not too many other places you can feel like a king for such a small amount. BTW, we still go get the fried banana.

6 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

My point is there is no need to pay more than 500 for a suitable place to stay in Nan by looking on Google Maps whenever you decide to stop for the day of your travel.  

You are quite right. That place does actually have a direct booking rate of 500 baht for a single guest in own air-con room with private bathroom. If the guest has previously stayed the rate is 460. Previous guest staying three or more nights the rate falls to 420. Highest guest rated accommodation in Nan province with more than 40 reviews on each of Google, Booking & Agoda. Only English style breakfast in the northern part of the province and best Thai breakfasts in Pua.

17 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

In Nan there was no need for us to pay more than 500 for nice rooms all biker friendly tboughout the mountain road network. 

And your point is?

2 hours ago, intheheartoftheheart said:

Does Nan have the same Air Quality issues as the rest of the North during burning season?

 

Any tips on where to sleep while doing the loop?

Pua Tranquil Vista Homestay is close to both #1256 and #1081 and biker friendly.

8 minutes ago, Mickeymaus said:

I am wondering that local beer prices didn't increase so far. But perhaps this is the just around the corner. Other things went up by at least 20 to 30 percent (until now...). Some products even increased 100 percent or more. Good that Thailand has only an inflation rate of about 6 percent ????????????. But they play the same game in Western countries....

Based on what I'm seeing in the supermarkets I'm thinking that six is missing a leading one.

Thai Lovelinks site 15 years ago. A nurse who swore off Thai men after learning her long time Thai boyfriend was a prolific butterfly. Never met him, but occasionally wish I could thank him for his reprehensible behaviour.

So this is not part of their everyday work routine?

The 34th of never I'm thinking.

Should have been added last review about 18 months ago but the government at the time somehow headed it off. While Labor's policies are no doubt better for the environment I don't see any government having the balls to do what it takes to save the reef, if that is actually possible now. And I suspect that is now a big if, and has been for some time.

Over here in Nan province for about a month. Although there was a couple of minutes of really intense rain last night a bit before midnight.

On 10/7/2022 at 9:51 AM, superal said:

The bread looks good .

Been making it for about a year since the supply of thick Farmhouse bread was unreliable in our town. Bread flour, water, salt and yeast, very little kneading and cooked in a cast iron camp oven in the electric oven. We've found just warming it in the toaster rather a full cycle toast is best. We serve with imported salted butter and a range of sweet and savoury spreads including Vegemite if there is an Aussie staying. By 'we' I mean the Thai wife on her own of course.

4 hours ago, MrJ2U said:

Many rivers flow into the Mekong.

 

But Chao Phraya, fed by many tributaries flows through Bangkok and into the Gulf of Thailand.

 

We'll see what happens.

 

The topic of the article was water in Chaiyaphum. None of that flows towards Bangkok.

13 hours ago, MrJ2U said:

All that water is headed to Bangkok.

 

Can't blame Thatskin this time. 

Think most of the water there will flow down the Chi to the Mekong.

Continuing deterioration of the Thai economy and physical environment.

Last year at Nan IO we went in the morning of the under consideration date to be told to return in the afternoon. We did and it was ready. Yesterday we submitted for another extension and got an under consideration date of 28 October...and was told to return 'in the afternoon'.

Did mine at Nan IO today. In/out in 80 minutes. Only customers in the office that whole period. No document changes from last year. First year I haven't forgotten something.

Believe I had COVID last week of 2019 into first few days of 2020. (Yes I know that is before the first official Thailand case. I know who I got it from and two folks I transmitted it too, both of whom also believe it was COVID.) At the time I thought it was a strange flu. Put myself to bed for four extremely uncomfortable days. This year have had AZ and Pfizer vaccinations. May have had a mild second case in the week or so after the Pfizer vac, could also have been a strong reaction to it. Have had two ongoing but periodic health issues since the first illness, reading suggests both are reported by folks with long COVID. I will likely double mask and take other precautions for a long time. In fact kind of like that I've not had the usual twice a year bad head colds of previous years. Have never been tested nor self-tested.