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A truly good man. May he RIP.

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Thats nice.....you can have your netiquite or whatever it is....I prefer common sense and if one post follows the other....then it is usually replying to the one above unless you include quotes cos it is up higher or you do the ^^ thingy......try it sometime...not as difficult as it looks.

I am afraid that you have not quite grasped the concept of "thread". A thread usually consists of an original post ("OP") and comments/replies to that. If you want to reply to another post within a thread, the kind and thoughtful administrators of the forum have supplied a "Reply" button in every post, except the OP. In other words, a post is normally NOT a reply to the immediately previous post.

However, LJW's post immediately preceding yours said: "One final point to all of those people who think I should not drive alone or whatever... It would be no different if i could walk. Still stuck, and no way to change that if I could walk... The only hassle for me was that I couldn't help him with his ropes"

Would you please explain what use a hand winch and rope (that you recommend) would be to a man who cannot walk. Or else, you can admit that you posted without first reading (and/or thinking).

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Perhaps you would be kind enough to explain, preferably in some detail, how a hand winch and some ropes would help a disabled man who cannot walk.

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Perhaps you should read again and try to comprehend the post I was replying to.

Priceless indeed.

I'll be glad to, if you would kindly indicate which post you were replying to. It was obviously not the OP.

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Sure...give me your hand and I will lead you through the rest of your life as well.

It is considered good "netiquette" to indicate which post you are replying to on a forum, unless it is the OP. Otherwise the reply frequently tends to become incomprehensible, as in this case.

And no thank you, I have managed running my life for a good many years without outside help.

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Perhaps you would be kind enough to explain, preferably in some detail, how a hand winch and some ropes would help a disabled man who cannot walk.

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Perhaps you should read again and try to comprehend the post I was replying to.

Priceless indeed.

I'll be glad to, if you would kindly indicate which post you were replying to. It was obviously not the OP.

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You could have with you, as you should when going to remotish areas and plan on river crossings where there is a very good possibility of getting stuck....a hand winch and ropes.....you could pull yourself out then......you simply should plan it better...not not do it, but do it better because of your disability.

Perhaps you would be kind enough to explain, preferably in some detail, how a hand winch and some ropes would help a disabled man who cannot walk.

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I'm not flamin' and it seems clear your a decent sort but I write this because I'd like to point out what I think sometimes happens (paternalism? or just a unconscious sense that everyone has price and wants it to be paid) with even decent folks with the best of intentions...

Why offer him money? Especially given he was driving a "fancy 4WD"? Do you think maybe your perception is a bit skewed? Even the title of the OP suggests something, given that you felt the need to specify that it was a Thai --but this giving money...

Most Thais I know -- maybe all of them but ESPECIALLY the ones with money (even merely enough to drive a fancy 4WD) -- would be saddened and/or offended to be offered money for helping out.

Would you have offered someone that money in your own country or a Farang here? Really?

BTW

It's a nice thing but hardly surprising, is it? I've got many, many stories of Thais helping out - some in a really big ways.

I cannot speak for LJW, but I for one would have offered some token of appreciation in my own country as well. Where I come from, that is called "manners".

Furthermore, I think that LJW with more than 25 years in Thailand, and being a fluent Thai speaker, is quite able to judge the proper course of action in most situations here.

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On occasions like this I wish there were a 'Like'-button on ThaiVisa. A really nice story, LJW. Thank you for sharing.

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Hey everyone,

I am a swedish tourist currently hanging out in Vietnam and I have booked airline tickets to Chiang Mai for the 2nd of september. What kind of conditions should we expect? Is this a poor time to visit CM? Will trecking tours, elephant riding, whitewater rafting and that touristy stuff be operating? Given the news, we are considering trying to rebook for elsewhere in Thailand. In case you advice me not to come to CM, can you suggest a better place to go? We are looking for a combination of shopping and adventure holidy for about a week on our honeymoon.

Hoping for a fast review of the current situation in CM,

Best,

Anna

I would say that this is a perfectly OK time to visit Chiang Mai. The air is clear and the temperatures are nice. To be absolutely sure of avoiding flooding, you would probably have to leave Southeast Asia, which I guess you don't want to.

If you want some tips or any kind of help while you're here, don't hesitate to send me a PM. I'm Swedish (stockholmare) and live here on a full-time basis since 2006, so I might be able to assist.

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All this talk of pizza is giving me cravings. Is there antwhere in Chiangmai where yo can get a good roo meat pizza? I know the sell Roo steaks in Mackro so there must be someone who makes a good Aussie pizza with roo meat

I asked a few Thai friends, but all I could get out of them was "My Roo?!".

I am bound to agree that some of the wording in the report leaves much to be desired and the one that caught my eye was, when referring to the size of Thailand, "Its land area is slightly over 500,000 square kilometers, almost about the same land area as France and Spain" - France OR Spain would make sense but as it stands it does not. Anyway, pedantic I hear you say, possibly.

But on the subject of monitoring stations and their alleged omission from the map: I see that Dr. Vanisa Surapipith of the Thailand Pollution Control Department (PCD)was the Thai representative who "provided information, technical research support and advice" to the report, do we suppose he doesn't know the extent of the monitoring stations that are deployed or do we treat the alleged omission in the same context as my example above, a bit of sloppy report writing where the authors got the key answers right but failed on presentation, dunno.

My impression is that they made a nice presentation but got the key answers wrong. All the facts that I could check, without diving deeply into the report, turned out to be wrong.

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And to further put things in perspective:

"State of the air: PM10 is a significant pollutant in Thailand. In 2008, the maximum of the average daily

PM10 exceeded the daily standard in the Central, Northeastern and Northern regions. Among the

provinces in Saraburi and Samut Prakarn in the Central region exceeded the annual standard. The

provinces with PM10 pollution problems are Saraburi, Ratchaburi, Samut Prakarn and Ayutthaya

(Central), Nakhon Ratchasima (Northeast), Lampang and Chiang Mai (North) because they had high

percentage of days when the PM10 level exceeded the daily standard. In addition to PM10, O3 is

potentially becoming a problem".

Have you got a source for this? I personally find the text rather amusing since it supposedly concerns 2008. In that year the average daily pollution level in Chiang Mai was 38.4 µg/m³, to be compared with the Pollution Control Department's limit of 50 µg/m³. The "high percentage of days when the PM10 level exceeded the daily standard" was 0.819%, as there were only three such days that year (6^th, 7^th and 24^th of March).

It so happens that 2008, in both these respects, was the best year on record. I personally suspect that the present year (2011) will turn out even better, but that of course remains to be seen.

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Look in Post #23 above, Mapguy's attachment and read the summary at the end.

Thank you. Your quote is then quite correct, however the document you're quoting from is not. I have read it before, and discarded it as rather full of obvious errors. I'll give one more example in addition to the one about air quality in Chiang Mai from my previous post:

According to the report, the location of pollution measuring stations looks as follows:

Just looking at the Upper North, I immediately miss the stations in Lamphun, Nan, Payao and Phrae that were all operational for the full year 2010. There are probably others missing as well, but my main interest is in the North.

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And to further put things in perspective:

"State of the air: PM10 is a significant pollutant in Thailand. In 2008, the maximum of the average daily

PM10 exceeded the daily standard in the Central, Northeastern and Northern regions. Among the

provinces in Saraburi and Samut Prakarn in the Central region exceeded the annual standard. The

provinces with PM10 pollution problems are Saraburi, Ratchaburi, Samut Prakarn and Ayutthaya

(Central), Nakhon Ratchasima (Northeast), Lampang and Chiang Mai (North) because they had high

percentage of days when the PM10 level exceeded the daily standard. In addition to PM10, O3 is

potentially becoming a problem".

Have you got a source for this? I personally find the text rather amusing since it supposedly concerns 2008. In that year the average daily pollution level in Chiang Mai was 38.4 µg/m³, to be compared with the Pollution Control Department's limit of 50 µg/m³. The "high percentage of days when the PM10 level exceeded the daily standard" was 0.819%, as there were only three such days that year (6^th, 7^th and 24^th of March).

It so happens that 2008, in both these respects, was the best year on record. I personally suspect that the present year (2011) will turn out even better, but that of course remains to be seen.

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We may get all this non-nomenclature sorted about the same time this website (and to be fair most others) stop wrongly calling Chiang Mai the 2nd biggest city in Thailand. That is Nakhon Rachasima, also known as Korat. Chiang Mai is the 4th or 5th largest city, but is and always has been the 2nd largest PROVINCE.

In the words of the immortal bard: Jeez!

This is a fun discussion! I have no more (or probably less) clue than anybody else, but here are a couple of pointers:

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (UNESCAP, http://www.unescap.org/esid/psis/population/database/thailanddata/north/chiang%20mai.htm ) says:

"Chiang Mai, 761 kilometers by rail, approximately 700 kilometers by road north of Bangkok, with an area of 20,107.1 square kilometers, is Thailand’ s second largest city and capital of the northern region."

It appears rather obvious that they confuse province and city, though, since they give the population as 1,500.1 thousand. The population of the "municipal area" is given as 26.5% of the total, which would make it ~398 thousand.

UNESCAP, http://www.unescap.org/esid/psis/population/database/thailanddata/northeast/NakhonRatchasima.htm gives the total population of Nakhon Ratchasima as 2,556.3 thousand with 21% in the "municipal area", which would make it ~537 thousand.

Wikipedia ( http://www.unescap.org/esid/psis/population/database/thailanddata/northeast/NakhonRatchasima.htm ), on the other hand, gives the Chiang Mai city population as 958,824.

For Nakon Ratchasima Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakhon_Ratchasima ) gives a "municipal area" population of 142,645.

I love this Asian fascination with very exact-looking numbers, preferably at least six significant digits. Whether the figures are well-defined, correct, relevant and so on seems to be totally beside the point

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Is there no way that you can have your bill direct debited from your account and have the bill paid automatically...I ask this because i will be away for a few months at a time and will not be there to pay the bill. Any advice on that scenario?? Mike

I've been paying my electricity (and water, phone/ADSL, UBC etc) bills by direct debit through SCB for the last 2½-3 years now. Never a glitch. Talk to your bank about it, they should have all the forms and information you need.

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any idea of the night of the lantern launch in Mae Jo then? Nov 9th is a common date bandied about... but when will we get an "official" announcement and who gives such announcements?

Take a look at the calendar Tywais posted, and you will find it on November 5^th.

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That's funny I need to go back where I came from because you are not smart enough to do some research yourself where to get tires.(must be the easiest thing to get in Thailand besides finding a 7/11)

Maybe you need to go back where you come from, and buy your tires there...

I'll try to explain this just once more: The OP did not ask where he could find any tyre dealer. He asked for a recommendation for one, i.e. a dealer of which other TV members had good experiences:

"recommendation > noun a suggestion or proposal as to the best course of action, especially one put forward by an authoritative body" [Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford University Press 2006]

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There are about a thousand tireshops in Chiang mai, sure you can find one...

If you read the OP once more (maybe you can get somebody to help you), you will find that he is asking for recommendations and, if possible, prices. He is not asking where he can find any tyre shop.

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I frequently order things from amazon.co.uk. Normal delivery time is 6-8 days. The few times that I have ordered from amazon.com it has taken at least twice that time. I guess that US Postal "Service" is the guilty party

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The course the OP won at the 4th of July party was for learning English, not Thai.

And in Chiang Mai, not Bangkok. Don't you wish people would read a thread before thay post...

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I might be making a trip to check out wine collection out near airport plaza - thanks!

Rimping (Airport) carry a Chilean wine called Antares. The Cabernet Sauvignon is really good at 485 baht. Cheap for Thailand

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Vision Center in Rajvitthi Rd, next to the UN Irish Pub, certainly does this kind of test.

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Thanks. Do they make (grind) the lenses themself, or are they made in Bkk?

I don't know if it is true about all prescriptions, but they have normally delivered mine within a couple of hours. This obviously means that they make them themselves. BTW, I'm astigmatic too.

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Vision Center in Rajvitthi Rd, next to the UN Irish Pub, certainly does this kind of test.

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good for you.........Everyones experience is different in Thailand on this interesting subject.

I only offered my own personal experiences and qualified this in my reply by stating that this was a personal experience of BKK banking and that many other banks may adopt a different business approach and regulation to Foreign Deposit Accounts.

Thai Visa is designed to offer personal experiences from all walks of life and I hope will assist others from making mistakes that they may have made personally.

Regards

I think that what everybody except you is wondering is:

Why on earth should the OP open a Foreign Deposit Account? This is not in his post, and for most people it fills no useful purpose. Your posts make it sound as if this is necessary, which it clearly is NOT.

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You will need to open a Foreign Currency Deposit account with your bank here.

No you don't. Simply open a standard account and transfer SWIFT, instructing funds to leave UK in sterling. That's it. Only benefit of a foreign currency account would be if you receive frequent payments in other currencies here. For a simple transfer from home, seems like a lot of hassle.

Correct, I have a standard savings account with Bangkok Bank, you do not need to open a 'Foreign Currency Deposit Account'....the front of my Bangkok Bank book just says 'Savings Account Passbook'.....just a standard savings account that I send money to from my UK account.

To save all the conjecture...let the OP open whatever account is admissible and maybe he can report back regarding his experiences and what actually was required..

I also have gone down this path and whilst I agree that my UK Foreign Deposit Account book is only named as a "savings account" ..It is a different sized account savings book from normal BKK savings accounts and ONLY holds UK sterling, and this book CANNOT be inserted into the ATM machines for updating because of the different in size in account book and currency held within the account. Therefore this account book can only be updated by branch held machines.. So perhaps posters will not take things out of context. and report true facts as opposed to snipping my posts and take the time read the full post that I published. And respond accordingly.

Very interesting... However, you still have not explained why the OP should open a Foreign Currency Account, when any plain vanilla savings account will do.

I have personally used my Siam Commercial Bank savings account for this kind of transactions for the last five years or so. Never a glitch!

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Visit during the fire burning months before making a major commitment to CM. I thinks its a no go for people with existing lung disease issues like asthmatics.

Yes, and for the same reason they should avoid all of the Northern and Central regions (including Bangkok) and most of the Eastern region, since they all have higher pollution levels than Chiang Mai.

Seaside resort areas like Phuket and Surat Thani are probably the only Thai areas to go if you have pre-existing respiratory health problems.

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