Phuket electrician

Cheating is ubiquitous here. For the locals it's considered a national sport to cheat a farang.

A local shop has for the past ten years tried to overcharge me. I go for there for similar sporting endeavors and pluck a large cold Leo beer from the fridge and ask in Thai how much? Always the same B70.

Politely I replace it. Walk to the shop next door and give my Thai friend B50. He then goes in to the same shop and buys me a large Leo for B50.

My friend gets a free can of coke. I sit outside on the pavement and drink it. Never a problem, quite the opposite.

Cheating is a nation sport, in school, at work, in government, at the cop shop. Shame it isn't an Olympic event. There's 1 country that excels at it.

Cheating

Bar on the beach also has a treble pricing policy. Large Leo B120. Same thing in Udon B65 without the beach.

Losing face - wat a joke - ninnies.

They police are straight, if you've done nothing wrong you wont have a problem. Same in any civilized country. As she says It's all for show.

Walk across the road via the overpass. it's 300 meters.

Remember the leaky surveillance Air ship that couldn't fly above 3000 feet? And no budget to inflate it.

Bought the girlfriend a new sit up a beg bike, living in Cambridge England flush with cash, bike city. Thought I'd give it quick cheeky go before tying a ribbon on it and giving it to her. Tested the brakes, stopped dead and went straight over the handle bars.

Not a scratch on it but lost a bit of my face on the tarmac road.

At 5 years old fell out of the 1st floor bedroom window after sitting on the sill, encouraged by my older brother.

Still dead clumsy* too this day.

*Clumsier.

Embarrassing stories makes us human beings. No one can exist without losing face through incompetence, being clumsy, forgetful, down right daft or wrong place, wrong time, plain bad luck.

Falling down somebody else's stairs naked, walking down the high street unaware that yesterdays underwear's flapping out of the bottom of your jeans or compromised with your step sister when mom and pop arrive home early from Tescos. Following thru unexpectedly and thinking you've gotten away with it until you realise you hadn't when others can see the proof and giggle at your misfortune. Saw it once in Spain, unforgettable.

Poor guy in the media today caught 'stealing' B100 from a temple in Karon. It doesn't get any lower than going to your local temple equipped with a balloon stick minus the balloon with a blob of gum on the end to make ends meet. Priceless.

Getting on the wrong express train, wrong ferry, being at the wrong airport. Happens to everyone - yet some people seem to be averse to it. Odd isn't it?

Be careful out there.

Guy on the front of the PGazette has got one for sale. Not sure about genuine Windows. OS

Advice on Pangnagna Rd in Town, Same road as Royal Phuket City Hotel, Very near Electricity office, where one can pay Elec bill if too late at 7/11

English computerMan just before Chalong circle to Town, Next door to LinguaPlus language school

Ground floor of Big C

Buyer beware

Went along to CAT office in Phuket town today upgraded to 5 Gb package. 750+ vat/month, B100 extra. They are so nice I didn't complain about intermittent service. Paid my bill for last month B471.14. I queried the amount, they said it's correct as I have only had the service for 3 wks, in fact I signed up on 12th July. 5 weeks 4 days, Alai gor dai, Since that date statistics are: download 23.12Gb; upload 9.87Gb.

No complaints except it's on/off/stop/start. When I disconnect/reconnect it works ok.

Without the tec savvy of Oilikni I'll live with it and see what occurs. Sabai sabai.

Thank you v. much for input.

Do you think that this is not a true broadband (BB) service? And in trying to restricted bandwidth their server software doesn't know <deleted> is going on. I say this because it works perfectly, and indicates full reception. Then the network software tries to restrict access. Hench on/off/stop/start. F nose. Sometimes it is flawless 400Mb then stops.

If I disconnect/reconnect it works perfectly then for no reason stops. Madness.

Try explaining this in Thai to the delightful and helpful staff in Phuket town. I feel sorry for them.

My experience of Thailand is that it will all be ok eventually, IF one has the patience of a saint.

Maybe someone here has some expertise.

I've got the HUAWEI E3131 HSPA+ USB Stick 'dongle' - and signed up for 3 gig package with CAT it's B650/month++, was under the impression this is a broadband unlimited service.

Statistics - Monthly 'Download data 8.31 GB - Upload Data 3.36 GB.'

It always registers five bars of reception and works Ok, sometimes. Does anyone know <deleted> is going on with this?

CAT CDMA worked perfectly well, I've 2 CDMA modems @ B2500 ea - now redundant of course, same PC, same location - now this pile of poo, it's really is frustrating sometimes:

I have a land line also but that's a complete birds nest for 2 or 3 kms a pile of <deleted>, and not worth the hassel. No mains water here, off the beaten track near Kao Kad view point, 70 + m above sea level.

AAAAAAaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggghhh!

Tried to post this message - network not available. FF sake!

Beautiful pictures, had a similar experience earlier this month in Ao Makham . My cat came across a similar looking snake about 1m. More markings on it's throat than your pic. The cat sat in front and at a right angle to it about a foot away. Just sat there almost ignoring the snake. Fascinating. Cat chased it away after 5 mins. My pic was stot with cheap fuji camera. Don't know how to post pic here.

The issue is the protection of the vulnerable. I came her because it's not the west, it's was and is still uncivilised, inexpensive, amniotic, this is party town. But the one's making all the money have a duty of care to the vulnerable as we all do. It seems that greed and cultural cowardice exacerbates their vulnerability. That can't be right. Good fortune allows some of us global freedom. The subject matter are not as fortunate. As privileged creatures we should speak out for them.

Penang is a long road trip and quite run down. Singapore is good for kids if you have money.

A colleague of mine offers this advice teaching in Thailand. 'Your not here to come up with ideas, know anything, say anything or do anything except teach ESL.'

You'll make yourself unpopular with the Thai teachers and that's your allotment.

That 'nice piece of paper' consumes considerable resources to obtain. A degree is proof that the holder has a 'degree' of competence and the basic skill set employers want. Including the Ministry of Education, clearly. If you wish to fit in somewhere do as the locals do. It annoys me when any individual thinks their word is more important than another's. The opinion of a 'visitor' counts for nothing here or anywhere else and rightly so. Don't know why I'm wasting my time writing this. Best of luck & keep smiling.

So here goes, recycle plastic 1.5L bottles, you know sprite, coke etc fill them with water from a 25l ltr white bottle 10 baht if you’re lucky or 12 baht if they see you coming. Keep these recycled bottles in the fridge or the freezer. The fridge has to do less work once they are cooled and you can use the frozen ones for the customary cooler in the boot of the car, put them back in the freezer when your done.

Do not do this with PET or PETE if you are concerned for your safety. Especially freezing or heating them releases carcinogens.

What ??????? Get your facts right.. freezing PET or E-PET ( which is extrusion blow molded PET) will not release carcinogens . This is this old chestnut that came from the PVC days and now is having a run for its money with PC ( Polycarbonate). PVC i used to be plasticised with phthalates, not anymore for food grade and PC has as one of its monomers BPA which is an endocrine disprupter.

PET is a straight condensation polymer and has no additives and is FDA approved and will not leach out any carcinogens...

If you really are concerned with carcinogens then don't buy canned materials made in Thaialnd. The epoxy lining has BPA in it and quite often leaches out into the food.

PET is safe and the virgin resin only comes from large international chemical companies who are very heavily regulated.

LOL @ pot on the stove to cook rice, I have just returned from abroad with my missus and had to cook rice this way, she was mortified.

I also thought this was really weird when I first encountered it in the west.

A friend of mine in England said "so if I go into the kitchen of a proper Thai restaurant in Thailand I will find them cooking rice in a rice-cooker will I?".

"Yes, that's exactly what you'll find" says I. "A great big fcukoff electric rice cooker".

"Sh_t. So this cooking rice in a pot business that the TV chefs do is just some macho western <deleted>".

"I think so mate"

Cooking rice in a pot on a stove is a bit like toasting your bread on an open fire or doing your laundry with a wringer, especially when there are some pretty clever automatic rice cookers available now.

True, but most westerners will cook rice once a month perhaps in their own country? So it is a waste of space / money to buy a steamer just for this purpose. Same as people who do not eat much toast don't tend to have a sliced bread toaster and if they do, most likely it will have other uses as well as merely toasting toast.

Surely it has to be 'make toast' - unless you want it 'double' toasted. If it is already 'toast' how does one toast it? You can use a toaster to cook fish fingers, however and you can also use a kettle to cook frankfurter sausages if all the saucepans are dirty and you can't be arsed to wash one up, and for those of you that enjoy a good read instead of wasting money on tarts, check out the history of sliced bread on the three w's.

OP. You use a KETTLE??

What a waste of electric. Fill your mug with water, pop it into the microwave for abt 1 minute and you have water hot enough for coffee / tea. (based on 1KW microwave)

You are quite correct brother - I use one in the office to make a tasty brew, it works very well, however it’s just not right is it - how does it work? Stick a small well loved, yet incontinent family pet in there and see what occurs.

Likewise we discovered while heating a Fray Bentos it makes an acceptable interim mini firework display while we wait for the real thing in November. The kids love it and I encourage science and technology as much as the next man. In fact after I disconnected the safety switch on the door - my youngest can't get enough of it. In saying that I haven't seen him around for a while and come to think of it his older brother and mum haven't been home since I don't know when. Ummmm!

Find yourself a big girl and suggest a meet for lunch. Smile as she orders whatever she likes, enough for two.

Admire the joy on her face as she's stuffing it in with her trotters. Refrain yourself until she utters ‘...aren’t you hungry?’

Reply ‘’actually, that looks delicious, may I?’’

Fill you boots.

Politely excuse yourself. Place key in ignition and head off home.

Not to be taken literally, for amusement only.

:-)