Ombra

I am glad that there was no internet to tempt me when I was a stupid 21-year-old.

5 hours ago, ChaiyaTH said:

Seems they have water shortages everywhere in south of Thailand up to hua hin now. Maybe they should stop watering a few golf courses, they use tons of water. Is the same in Portugal where they have to bring water in from Spain for some of the courses lol.

And stop filling the swimming pools.

We have seen many of these slow, disruptive road construction project. They are not only a major inconvenience to travelers, but they also damage the businesses situated along the roads. I can't believe that they compensate business owners for loss of income.

It is a good initiative, but one bus every 30 minutes is not going to help many people.

Isn't it the case that fewer people die on the roads during the long holidays because there are fewer opportunities to drive fast and drive recklessly? We have seen the figures quoted on this website many times before.

4 hours ago, billd766 said:

I am happy to hear that the government water has started flowing again. We used to buy water every year, but luckily about 3 years ago  our group of villages got connected to the big village supply pipeline. Granted that during the day the government supply is cut off, but it does flow at night, so every bodies ongs are usually refilled over night.

 

many years ago my wife enquired about a borehole, but we have about a metre or so of soil and then it is an extreme hard rock, perhaps granite or something similar that will need a diamond tipped drill to bore the hole and I have no idea how deep they would need to drill to find water in enough quantity to be viable.

The water was only flowing early this morning, but it filled our tanks. I hope that it will resume overnight because there is no rain on the long-range weather forecast.

Here in Thap Sakae this morning, we had government water flowing through the pipes for the first time in three weeks, and we have been buying water during that period. Our garden is brown and some trees are dying. For me, this is a disappointment, but for farmers and local people who grow fruit and vegetables to supplement their incomes it is a tragedy. Last year, rain fell only during October and this problem was predictable, but the authorities seem incapable of planning. They encourage foreign tourists to come while the water table gets lower each year.

In Muang Prachuap Khiri Khan, a dentist told me last week that one of my canines had to be extracted and that it would cost 800 baht. As it is not loose or painful, I can decide when I want it done. It will leave a visible gap in the front of my mouth, and he said that the false tooth that will replace it would cost between 4,000 and 7,000 baht, depending on the quality of the tooth and plate.

I saw a foreign woman yesterday with a barbed wire tattoo on her arm. Doesn't that tell people her age?

By the time the last Gripen is delivered, won't it be a pretty old aircraft? 50+ years?

I agree with the OP. Not only fewer mynahs, but fewer birds altogether, other than pigeons. Not only that, but here in the south of Prachuap KhiriKhan there are so few insects. 40 years ago, we used to have to scrape them off the windscreen, but I can't remember the last time I did that. For the past year, I haven't even had to use my mosquito spray.

51 minutes ago, msbkk said:

It is not about sun dried or shade dried, this refers to the processing of the already grown beans. Shade grown means that the trees itself are not exposed to direct sunlight. Most of the Arabica plantations in the North are in cool mountain and forest areas and have natural shade from larger trees. Arabica plants do not tolerate direct sunlight well.  I visited several coffee plantations in different parts of the North and it is similar. Not every grower mentions shade grown even if it is the case. If you want to be really sure you should do some trips to Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Nan.

Thank you very much. Not only did I not know the distinction, but I have never seen Arabica being grown.

Thank you, but I looked and failed to find the information I wanted. Take this one for example:

Akhamaechantai | Coffee (akhamaechantaicoffee.com)

It looks good, but it doesn't mention whether it is sun-dried or shade-dried, unless my reading is poor.

I was reading a bird lovers' website (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) and it listed ways in which people could help birds, one of which was to buy shade-grown coffee rather than sun-grown coffee. I am disappointed to say that I had never read about this distinction, and when I looked on Google for suppliers of shade-grown coffee in Thailand, the only one I found stated that all its coffee was out of stock. Given that there are experts on brands of Arabica beans on this website, could someone please recommend one that is shade-grown?

I do my 90-day reporting there and it is very fast, but they don't do one-year visas.

My wife's two grandsons both went to a private school, and when they were about 8 and 10 years of age their father showed me a lesson from their English textbook. It was entitled, "The duties of the clergy and the laity during Buddhist Lent" and the language was very advanced. These little boys, however, were able to read and answer the questions that followed the text, but in fact they understood nothing because they had just memorized it. They could not understand a single word I said to them, and their only words in English were "Hello how are you I am fine thanks", which came out as a single utterance. What depressed me at the time was that their father, who spoke decent English, didn't care that the school was wasting their time because the boys were getting good grades.

Not only is that stretch of road either unlit or badly lit, but the camber is poor. Someone driving fast can find his vehicle unexpectedly drifting to one side or the other. The Prachuap officials ought to drive south 50 kms to Chumphon province and see the dramatic improvement in the quality of the road.

2 hours ago, klauskunkel said:

I always check my Spam Folder when waiting for a response, a few time I found it there.

Me, too. When I got to Hua Hin, I was told that no booking in my name had come from Bangkok.

I tried to book an appointment in Hua Hin a month ago. After I entered all the required information, I received a message which said that I would receive confirmation by email. It never came. My wife phoned to Hua Hin Immigration and she was told that they had no involvement in this procedure. It was done in Bangkok - or it was not done. Good luck!

16 hours ago, grain said:

One young Thai woman I knew wanted a "sharp" nose so she had a nose job, it sure was sharp, the tip of her nose came to a point, at first I thought she had a boil on the end of her nose, it was that sharp she could have dipped her nose into an ink well and used it to write with. Later she showed me photos of her before getting the nose job and she looked a million times better with her natural Thai nose. 

My wife had a pleasant-looking young relative who had plastic surgery. I didn't recognize her when she visited us, and I wondered how her changed appearance affected her two young children because their mother no longer looked quite like their mother.

12 hours ago, khunjake said:

One of the many reasons why we bailed out of BKK. It just gets worse each year and there is never a solution provided to the problem. It now spreads to Hua Hin and Pattaya as well. Living upcountry can be tough but at least we got clean air. 

Last year, the smog drifted more than 100 kms south of Hua Hin on many occasions. You could smell it as well as see it.

On 9/24/2023 at 2:22 AM, still kicking said:

One of my favourites 

Chivapchichi, also known as cevapcici or cevapi, are skinless sausages made from minced meat, usually a combination of pork, beef and lamb. They are a traditional dish in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe, especially in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia. They are grilled and served with various accompaniments, such as ajvar (a roasted capsicum and eggplant relish), sour cream, kajmak (a type of clotted cream), chopped onions, lemon wedges and flatbread.

I lived in the town of Maribor in Slovenia once and I agree that cevapcici are really delicious. Far better than your average sausage.