MikeN

2 hours ago, UKJASE said:

i have just ordered some 

Glyphosate Herbicide

 

Ordered on lazada of all places!!

 

will that do the trick if sprayed on the leaves?  google seemed to think so, but i know these leaves just seem to have the water run off the leaves very quickly as they seem so waterproof (if that's the right word)

 

will application be easy?  it is safe for other plants under the water, plus fish, plus humans i read. 

 

i will test it on a few lotus plants that are in a small brook nearby first.

 

What do you knowledgable people think?

Safe for humans ? Did you not see the warning signs on the label of that very picture ?

 Glyphosate is certainly not safe for humans, or the environment.

 Apart from that, think about the practicality of spraying leaves in the middle of the lake .....are you just going to spray it willynilly from the bank which means most of it will either go into the water or get blown around on the wind, contaminating everything and everybody. Lotus seeds are a popular snack, what if somebody eats the seeds that you have just poisoned ?

 And apart from all that too, why do you think you have the right to remove the lotus plants just because you don’t like them ?

7 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

 BTS should look at the alternative of reducing fares to entice more passengers and make profit from sheer volume of customers, alleviating issues on the roads!

 

Considering that the BTS is jam packed already for much of the day, where are these extra passengers going to fit in ?

 Is the governor and the BMA going to subsidize the BTS in order to keep the fares capped cheaply ? If so, where is the money going to come from ? Directly or indirectly it will come from the residents of Bangkok that do not use the BTS.....is that fair ? Is it fair that the residents of Bangkok pay for the cheap fares of Samut Prakan province residents who get on at Kheha ?

 Or are you suggesting that a private company be forced to run at a loss ? Just look at what happened with the SRT running the ARL at a loss.

 The article is scaremongering with it’s suggestions of people paying the maximum fare possible.....how many people are going to travel through 3 provinces from end to end every day ? The vast majority of people will continue living fairly close to their work and only travel a few stations, just like they do now, and only pay about a quarter of what the article suggests.

Utility costs are quite cheap here so a small markup will not bankrupt you, but for reference at my condo in On Nut I pay 16 baht a unit for water ( at condo management rates) which came to 96 baht last month.

 Electricity is direct billed from MEA, last month was 886 baht. Running aircon is the biggest factor, in the cooler months our bill might be around 600/month or up to 950 when we use the air on more. If you have the aircon running all day expect to pay a LOT more, we generally only use it for an hour or so in the bedroom at night.

If it is a lease and not a usufruct, then surely he has broken the terms of the lease by not paying any rent ? In that case she could get him evicted by a court order. Yes, that would involve time and money ...... and assuming they did have a written lease not just a handshake deal.

 If it’s a usufruct he is on more solid ground, but as for selling and going 50/50 on the proceeds surely the land is in her name, and the house will be joint property if they built after marriage.

On 4/20/2019 at 10:03 PM, Denim said:

Been like that since the coup. Started going downhill within a few months and has never recovered.

The computer shops seem to be the hardest hit.

On the other hand the amulet business is actually expanding and now has places on the second floor.

Food court is still good and the weekend flea market on top is always interesting. Often see the occasional foreigner selling stuff there.

Nothing to do with the coup, they had a very prolonged renovation where they would close down half of one floor, a bit of another, shift all the stalls around. End result was that you never knew where anything was. This went on for about 18 months at least, many of the escalators were out of action for months. All this meant that customers came, were disappointed and never came back.

 Less customers plus higher rents meant many shops did not come back after the renovations finally finished, which means even less customers ....it’s a vicious circle.

 On the positive side at least the new food court is safer to eat at, pity they tucked it away where nobody knows about it !

 The pirate software and “sexy dvd” guys have been banished, whether that is good or bad is “up to you”.

14 hours ago, djayz said:

I've quite often though about that as well. I see the same fields being planted with crop of cassava after crop of cassava, year after year. The only thing they seem to do to the land is add chicken manure. I just assumed that cassava is more disease tolerant that other crops... 

 

They add chicken manure, and litre  after  litre of chemicals in the form of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides.

 From my experience with the GF’s family, Thai farmers have no concept of crop rotation let alone “wasting” an area of farmland by leaving it fallow for a year.

 The family farm has a small but reliable water source all year, not enough for a second rice crop but adequate enough to diversify into vegetables on a small-medium scale for some extra cash flow after the rice is harvested or as an alternative rotation crop.

 Are they interested ? No. The youngest brother was, but as the junior of the family he was outvoted and ended up moving to Chiang Rai to set up his own diversified farm.

 As an aside, the oldest brother and all 3 of the sisters husbands who worked with the chemicals out in the fields all died before they reached 60. I cannot help thinking that less chemicals and more crop rotation/diversification would give healthier soil, crops, and farmers.

1 hour ago, donim said:

Central has a customer card for foreigners.

They will not easily give you the Thai version.

 

Alas, the card for foreigners has more profits.

 

Maybe time for CP to introduce 7card for Expatirates

gives you the right buy alcohol during hours Thai can't buy.

Perfect?

The Central group has a tourist VIP card, where you have to show your passport for discounts. They also have the normal “1 Card” that is the same for Thais and resident expats, my application form was in Thai and English.

Absolutely no problem getting it. Most of the places where you can use the 1 Card do not especially cater for foreigners ....how many foreigners do you see in Officemate, B2S, Thaiwatsadu etc ? Even when I use it in TOPS most customers are Thai.

 “the card for foreigners has more  profits” 

huh ? You spend xxx baht, you get x points ....same for everybody. 

Redeem xxx points, you get x baht discount, ......again same for everybody. That’s on big signs, in Thai and English.

2 hours ago, uhuh said:

Which 7 sells water melons? 

I know they sell different things in different places (like different sizes of condoms), but water melons?

The one across the road from my condo in On Nut, and one in Phra Khanong, at least. It is a recent thing though, for about 2 months  or so, and not every day. Half watermelons to be precise, wrapped in meters of plastic naturally. They have a stand for bananas, watermelons and oranges .....and whatever junk food is on promotion on the other shelves below them.

 They also have small bags of grapes in the chiller section, again not in stock every day.

 This started after new manager/franchisee took over the place near me a while ago.

2 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

How many foreigners do you think would apply for such a card in Thailand? And how many Thais?

I guess the foreigners are best case 1% of the people who apply, probably a lot less.

Now if you would be the responsible manager would you spend lots of resources for the 1%?

Translation to English, English forms with "English" names, maybe passport numbers which don't fit the Thai ID number system, and and and.

It would be a lot of work for them to do this. Why should they do it?

Anybody can buy in 7/11 without a member card. And I will continue to go there because it's convenient - that the whole idea.

On the other hand, the Central Group think it is worthwhile with their “1 Card”. Their system accepts the western alphabet, and if you show your card at TOPS before the cashier starts ringing things up your receipt will be printed in English ! ( not sure about the other stores, think it is the same with Robinson’s at least). So it cannot be that hard to do.

^ Kastan said he fully intends to keep 400k for 12 months, I am merely pointing out that this is not enough come renewal time, in less than 12 months.

 Are you acting Thai, and worried about losing face because you made a simple typo error ? No need to get your panties in a knot.

4 hours ago, khastan said:

Smedly
That is entirely up to you and keep it there above 800k for 3 months after your approval date then 400k for the following 12 months - if you don't you may have problems with your next renewal.

Thank you for the advice, that is fully what I intend to do.
 

I think you will have a problem if you followed that literally.  It should read 400k for 7 months then back up to 800k for the 2 months before next year’s application.

 Or 6 months/3 months according to Nong Khai apparently, but certainly not 400k for 12 months.

17 hours ago, peterb17 said:

Do we gather that you don’t actually live at this address ? It’s just some arrangement?

 

like every where in the civilised world you need a legal permanent address- here it links into so many agencies.

Depending on where you live in Thailand, not necessarily........

 If you do your 90 day reports online you could use an old address and nobody would know. CW don’t ask for a current lease contract when renewing a visa extension, my contract finished years ago and CW have never asked to look at it. Other offices are fussier though.

 Don’t forget there are hundreds of thousands of Thais living and working in Bangkok that are officially registered as living back in their home town, even if they only go back there for a few days at Songkran.

54 minutes ago, AdamTH said:

I know! But will the landlord/house owner agree with "the" contract? Giving their ID, House Book, Personal Info...for foreigners..

Sent from my SM-J730GM using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

You (should) only need a copy of ID and housebook, not the originals. Until the introduction of "Smart IDs" recently Thais needed to give copies of their ID for just about every govt transaction, and still do for others so he should be used to it and i don't see why he would not give you a copy. Every landlord that has had dealings with foreigners should know about the registration process. If he does not want to rent to you then thats another matter .........

9 hours ago, Burma Bill said:

This is Lukla Airport with its short sloping runway that ends with a steep drop into a mountain valley.

 

And this was Lukla in 1994 or 1995, cannnot remember which trip this was taken on, probably the first in 1994

Both photos would have been taken from what would be the middle of the aircraft parking area now

It was a dirt strip then and you used to be able to walk down to the end, and see how close some of the tyre marks from landing were to the edge. On my second trip I made sure i got the centre seat front row so that I could see through the open cockpit door on the approach, straight at the hillside !

1 hour ago, Sam Lin said:

Bakery of the Central Chidlom supermarket has fresh hot cross buns as well as chocolate Easter eggs of all sizes, including a giant sized one.

Thanks for that .....it’s been 8 or 9 years since my last hot cross bun, might have a bit of a calorie splurge this weekend.????

I was talking to my GF yesterday about Easter, skipped over most of the religious stuff and told her it is a big holiday back home, a bit like Songkran is here. She was interested (typical Thais and food, LOL.) when I mentioned the traditional food of Hot Cross Buns and Easter Eggs....the chocolate ones not the dyed boiled eggs.  Which got me to wondering if they might be available here in Bangkok, perhaps at somewhere like the Emporium food hall ? Probably would cost an arm and a leg, but has anybody ever seen them for sale in BKK ?

4 hours ago, Formaleins said:

 

It is obvious the drunken fool did not set out to kill anyone, so I cannot see how they can use murder as the charge. There must be something more fitting, death by reckless driving, accidental homicide?? There must be a charge that will fit the crime.

 

If he had waved a gun around and shot somebody while drunk, it would be murder, would n’t it ? Even if he didn’t set out to kill anybody.

 In the wrong hands a car is just another weapon, and there were plenty of warnings about this change of heart so no excuse for ignorance.

 Accidental homicide ..... did he accidentally get drunk ?

5 hours ago, stbkk said:

A week or so ago I was asked for my passport to top up my skytrain card at On-Nut skytrain station, definitely a first (for me).

 

They accepted my pink id card though.

 

And yesterday I topped up again at Phrakhanong BTS, and of course no request for passport, id etc. just hand over the money. 

 

TIT.

That’s because you only have to register your Rabbit card once !

On 4/4/2019 at 5:39 PM, Peksi said:

It seems nobody has done this weird experiment, as one might guess.

 

Around my country they use ground temperature to extract heat in winters and cool in summertime. I am curious if the soil in Thailand would provide anything benefit for cooling purposes.

I did read something on the Coolthaihouse building forum of a guy who is trying that here, you might try looking for his story.

 Something like “ecohouse build in Surin” by Bandersnatch ?

2 hours ago, Chicken George said:

Article 44 stops things in their tracks. No nonsense act.. Something had to be kept quiet. I wont speculate. We will probable never know as thats why 44 was used. End of. Nothing more to see here.

 

Article 44 keeps things quiet ? You gotta be kidding ! it's the use of article 44 that has drawn all the attention. How many pages have been written here on TV over the last few days ? Anything that happens in the near future will be linked to this case, no matter how wild the speculation.

If it was on the orders of somebody at the very top (as some speculate) it would have been very easy to arrange a tragic accident for Big Joke.... wait until he leads a raid somewhere dark, shoot him in the back and blame it on foreign criminals.

Or just arrest him on some trumped up charge, stick him in a cell where the CCTV is broken, and let him commit "suicide".

1 hour ago, Issanbound said:

My mail is, from a very reliable source, it is for this very reason, corruption,  that he is under investigation. Do as I say, not as I do. 

And were you Jimmy7777 before you joined one hour ago ? He claimed to have lots of reliable sources too, his “spook contacts at the Embassy” etc. He has been silent since his claims of Big Joke being arrested, thrown into the royal prison, never to be seen again, are now obviously wrong.